RE 4: Crazy Doesn't Begin to Describe It
by Burningbridges
Summary: Cowritten with NonlivingNightmare. What would you do if you got stuck in a videogame with someone you barely knew? And the plot changes... Oh, the plot changes!
1. Where the hell are we?

Resident Evil 4: Crazy Doesn't Begin to Describe It

By Nonliving-Nightmare and Burning Bridges

"We are the Champions… No time for losers…" Vee was singing to herself, rather off key after her last few sips of coffee. It was the late afternoon and she was sitting in a recliner in the living room, a cup of hazelnut coffee in one hand, and a PS2 controller in the other. It had become her daily routine; drinking coffee and playing this game to varying stations on her decrepit radio.

"Ahh," she sighed to herself, "There's nothing more satisfying than butchering crazy farmers that come after you with their… 'agricultural implements'"

Just as Queen broke into another round of the chorus, she leaned forward in the chair a little to get a better look at the setting sun, turning the sky blood red with it's dying rays. Everything was normal for the most part. The coffee was on the bitter side, but that was the only problem on her mind. Otherwise, all was well.

She tensed up a little as Leon and Ashley drew closer to the area where the crazed chainsaw-wielding ladies were waiting. "I really don't like these bitches," she muttered, Leon telling Ashley to hide, before prepping himself and jumping down into the pit.

Without warning, Vee began to feel violently dizzy. She'd never felt like that before, except for maybe once, when she was really sick. But it wasn't all that alarming to her – the blood was probably just rushing to her head somehow. She set the controller down, trying to focus her eyes on something but failing miserably.

"Maybe I'll just sit back and rest for a moment." She closed her eyes, hearing what sounded like Leon being beheaded by one of the women before she drifted off.

There was a sound like rain hitting the roof, and a cool breeze was brushing against her face as she began to stir from her sleep. Slowly, Vee opened her eyes, getting a glimpse of the room's panorama, and sitting up straight, whispering, "What in fuck…"

She wasn't in her living room anymore… She was someplace she'd never seen before; a white room, dimly lit in the darkness of an afternoon storm, with furniture in shades of blue that clashed with a coral-tinted carpet. And in a chair on the other side of the room was a teenage boy, sleeping peacefully.

Without further thought, she impulsively jumped off of the couch she'd been sitting on, and shouted, "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU, AND WHERE AM I!"

The boy blinked a few times, and yawned. "What?"

"Who are you! I want to know right now! What, did you bring me here to rape me or something!"

"Pardon?" he opened his eyes, taking in everything around him for the first time. His eyes fell on a very angry looking girl standing a couple yards away looking herself over like she thought there was something on her. "And why am I wearing different clothes – these aren't even my clothes. Oh god, I don't know where these have been. What is happening!"

"What the… What is this place?" he asked a little more calmly than his companion, looking all over the room for something familiar.

"That's what I was asking you! What the fuck is going on? Is this some one's idea of a joke, or did I just blindly stumble into a fucking SAW movie!"

"… How did this happen? One minute I was playing Resident Evil 4 and then - "

The girl stopped in her tracks, having been pacing in front of the couch frantically. "You were playing RE4? So was I…"

"What? Are you serious? Which part?"

"The 'killer chainsaw ladies'," she said slowly, staring at the carpet.

"I had just jumped - "

" – Into the pit?"

"Well, I was going to say arena, but that works too."

"You… don't think this has something to do with that, do you?" Her expression was quickly turning frenetic as the picture began to develop before them.

"I don't know… But I'd be willing to say no."

She sank to the floor, looking around the room. "There has to be something that will tell us where we are…"

When she didn't make a move to get up, he did, searching for any signs of a phonebook or something. Pushing aside piles of books stacked around the chair where he'd woken up, he found a newspaper.

"What is it?" she asked, and he didn't answer, staring at it in total uncertainty. He tossed it over to her, his expression still a mixture of what seemed to be surprise and horror. She let her eyes fall on the headline. "No… No… No! That isn't even remotely possible!"

On the front page, were the words 'President's Daughter Abducted', and below that was a photo of a smiling blonde girl, labeled 'Ashley Graham recently disappeared on a trip from college'.

"This isn't real! Somebody must have drugged me, or something." She looked all over her arms in vain for any sign of puncture wounds, knowing that there probably weren't any. "This is just a dream…"

"I don't think so…" the boy managed finally. "I don't know how, but we're… We're here…"

"We can't be! It defies all logic – even Quantum physics wouldn't explain this to me!"

"What?" he asked, giving her a funny look and going to pick up the paper.

"Never mind… Please prove to me that we are NOT in Resident Evil 4…"

"Well, according to this we are. There's even mention of Umbrella! On page H… Why would this happen?"

"I have no clue. For all I know, we could have messed up the space-time continuum."

"But how? There's bound to be any number of people on the same part of a game at a given time."

"Once again, no clue… Maybe it was a special case. I really don't believe this…"

"Well, since we're stuck here together… My name is Travis."

"And mine's Vera…"

"Wait… You wouldn't happen to go by 'Vee' would you?" he stared at her in near bewilderment.

"Yeah, how did you know that?" she asked, a little startled.

"It's me. 'Nonliving-Nightmare', remember?"

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT! IT CAN'T BE! YOU'RE KIDDING!" she said, getting up and backing away until she ended up falling back onto the couch again, staring at her friend in a state of shock. When she had composed herself a little more, she managed to squeak, "Non-Nigh? Is that really you? … How do I know you're not just a figment of my imagination?"

"In the flesh I think and we could always do the classic pinch test but why give each other unnecessary bruises? I have a feeling we're going to get plenty of those. Let's just trust each other and see if we can figure out how we got here." He answered.

"I agree. For all we know we could be trapped in the middle of a ganado invasion." She said, pushing herself off the couch.

"I kinda doubt that. This newspaper is from America so I say we're still in the United States but the problem is where exactly?"

"Doesn't it say?"

"This paper is pretty much empty besides a few ads. It mainly concentrates on Ashley and her kidnapping." He said, flipping through the paper.

"Maybe it's trying to tell us something." Vee said, taking the paper from him.

"Yea she gets kidnapped too often."

Travis looked around the room until the thunder and the lightning from the storm made him jump. "I hate lightning. Why does the atmosphere have to be so creepy? It's not like we're in the Spencer Estate. I can take it in the game but come on aren't things bad enough?"

A loud crash came from another room in the house that they were in, catching both of their attentions.

"Maybe you spoke to soon." Vee said, picking up a fire poker and edging towards the door.

"Great we get eaten before we even figure out why we're here." Travis said, trying to use sarcasm to suppress his fear. He walked through the doorway with Vee but slipped in a slick puddle of water that was leaking from an open window. He accidently rammed into Vee as he fell, making them both fall.

"Ouch that hurt. You really are clumsy."

"I'm sorry." Travis said, getting back up and helping Vee up as well.

"Wait why did we come in here again?" She asked flipping the light switch.

The room had a refrigerator, a sink, and a small table that sat three people. The sink was under the open window with some dirty dishes. On the counter was a wet cat.

"It must have crawled in through the window." Vee said, making the observation.

"So this cat was what made the noise?"

"Yea it must have jumped on the counter and knocked those pans on the floor off."

"What a relief."

"Don't get too happy. It looks like someone lives here." Vee said, her grip tightening on the poker.

"Hey there's a note here." Travis said as he picked it up off the table and began reading it aloud.

"Note to Vee and Travis: I had to leave the city on business. Sorry I didn't get a chance to say goodbye you two were fast asleep. I'llbe back in a few days. Take care."

"Is it signed?"

"Apparently not" Travis replied, flipping the note over.

"Great we're stuck in Resident Evil 4 we think and we have no idea where we are. This can't be happening!"

"It is and there's nothing we can do about it. Maybe we should get some rest and discuss this a little further tomorrow."

"Okay" Vee replied, dropping the poker and going back to the couch and collapsing on it.

Travis went back to the chair and tried to rest, his mind going over the fact that they were trapped in a video game. He always imagined what it'd be like in a game but a first hand

experience was a little much to ask for. He struggled to stay awake but the whole ordeal had made him tired and the bump on the back of his head from falling wasn't helping. He faded into a light sleep.

They both hoped that this had been just a dream and that when they awoke, they would be in their own beds, in their own homes but when Travis was awoken by loud screams and curses he saw that it hadn't been a dream. "What's wrong?"

"We're STILL HERE that's what! It's clear that this is real and not just a dream!" Vee yelled, frustrated. "If only we knew where the heck we were! I mean I know we're in the Resident Evil world but where exactly! There is something wrong with this place!"

"At least we're in it together. Doesn't that reassure you any?"

"No not really. I'd prefer to have a shotgun and a Chicago Typewriter or better yet A WAY OUT OF HERE!"

The TV caught Travis's attention, causing him to block out the distraught Vee. "Hey look it's the news." Travis said, getting up and turning the volume up. "Maybe it'll tell us something."

"Welcome to the seven o'clock morning news. The weather today is going to be mostly sunny. A nice change after the weather we've been having. That's good news for you New Yorkers. Now to the news. "

"NEW YORK?" They both yelled in unison.

"Well… At least we know where we are now," Travis said, looking cautiously over at Vee hoping she wouldn't start freaking out again, but all she did was give a sigh of what seemed like relief.

"My best friend would envy us. She grew up here," she said, smiling slightly for a brief moment before sitting down and looking at the décor of the room in a grave manner. "Part of me wouldn't mind trading places right about now… Jeez, this apartment sure is ugly. It could use an interior designer…"

"I think we have more to worry about than who decorated right now," Travis responded, turning his attention back to the TV as a report about Ashley's abduction came on.

The cat that had given them a scare the night before came in meowing, and Vee went over to it.

"Hungry, little kitty? Let me see if I can find some cat food… What's your name, anyway? I'll be stuck here with you for a while," she said quietly, taking a look at the tag hanging from its collar. "Terwilliker? Like in Dr. Seuss?"

The grey and white cat just meowed again and she shrugged. "Okay, okay, I'll find you food."

Travis, meanwhile, wasn't finding the news to be very informative. The anchors constantly repeated the same information, and made various allusions to the fact that they thought Ashley might have been taken to the Middle East. How wrong they were.

He got up and began to wander around the living room looking for anything that might give them a hint of what their lives were like here.

He paused by a bookshelf, where there were books on any number of subjects arranged any which way. He looked over them slowly, until his eyes met with one of the most mystifying things he'd ever seen.

"Hey, Vee?"

"What is it?" she asked, poking her head around the corner, "Everything okay?"

"Take a look at this. I think I just found out who we live with." He pointed to a photo on one of the middle shelves, in an intricate pewter frame. She squinted, finally coming closer to see it better.

"Leon?" she said, her jaw dropping. The photo was indeed of a fairly cheery Leon Scott Kennedy, with an arm around each Travis to the right and Vee to the left.

"Unless he has an identical twin," Travis said, "And it would appear that we're quite close."

"Oooookaaaayyyy…" she said in a faintly uneasy tone. "I don't know how this world works, but it's sure good at making very unexpected things happen… I think I'll go wash my hands off now."

"Why? You didn't touch anything other than cat food."

"I'm an obsessive hand washer. It makes me feel better."

Travis followed her into the kitchen, and watched her scrub her hands while he tried to figure out what was happening. "What do you think we're here for? Could it be that we have to help Leon, or something?"

"Um…" Vee said, looking out the window at the side of another building. "Could be. Seems logical… What am I saying – nothing here is logical."

"But why do we have pasts here? I mean, even if RE is based on the real world to an extent, we still wouldn't exist."

"Well, the only thing I can think of is that we might be in another dimension…"

"An RE dimension?"

"Yeah, more or less. There's a belief that there are dimensions where everything in the world is exactly the same – like, the fifth dimension, I think - and where it's the complete opposite, and everyone who's nice is evil or whatever. Maybe there's a dimension in between… Dimension five and a half," she said, a slight smile gracing her features again just to fade to something different, this time, realization. "Wait… What are the titles of those books?"

"Why?" Travis asked, as Vee jogged back into the living room and stopping at the bookshelf.

"Let's see… The Stand, Pet Sematary, It, The Mail Call book, Colors of Life, Beowulf, Geek Love, Shardik, Watership Down, W.H. Auden… These are all books I have at home."

"Coincidence, maybe?"

"Unlikely. See this? 'Psychosurgery: Damaging the Brain to Save the Mind'. I spent a long time trying to find a copy of that because it was out of print, and I'm sure that Leon wouldn't read it. Is there anything else weird around here? Wait, there's a stack of CDs." She moved to another shelf at the end of the bookcase, running her finger down the stack of CD cases. "Aha! This CD didn't even exist in 2004 – All American Rejects, 'Move Along'! And these burnt CDs I didn't even make until around May of 2006. When we came here, we might have brought things with us, but that wouldn't explain why we have pasts here, unless we're in a dimension that's slightly similar to our own… Which would explain the lack of much else familiar to me…"

"But if we're here… Would that mean there are other people filling in for us at home?"

"I don't know… It's possible… I kinda hope not, though… They could totally mess up our lives… This isn't Quantum Leap, after all…"

"One thing I can't figure out is why two teenagers and a grown man would be living together…" Travis said, looking at the photo on the bookshelf again, and Vee nodded.

"You have a point. Some things are probably better left unanswered… Speaking of Leon, I guess we're going to help him?"

"I don't see much else around here that we could be doing in RE4," Travis said.

"I agree. But how do we get to Spain? I don't have a job as of right now, least of which, in this world… And even if I did, we'd still never have enough… We'll have to come up with some method of making money, fast… Any ideas?"

"I'd need time to think," Travis replied, and then added jokingly, "We could always try to win the lottery." Vee laughed for the first time since they'd found themselves in the strange apartment.

"That could take a long time. While we brainstorm, I'm going to go find some different clothes," she said, leaving the kitchen, and heading further back into the apartment. Travis seated himself at the table, looking around at the blue checkerboard motif running along the ceiling.

There were three adjacent small rooms on the right side of the hall and one that appeared to be the bathroom on the left. Vee slowly pushed the door to the first of the rooms on the right open, being greeted by the sound of music playing on a stereo next to the bed.

"… I need some love like I never needed love before…"

"Uh," Vee said, "I think I've just confirmed which room is Leon's." She peered around the door into the next room over, which was white like the living room, but with a dark green carpet. On the wall was a sign with her name in purple and blue that Vee recognized immediately as the one her best friend had made her. "Guess this one's mine."

The bed was to her right, footboard facing the wall opposite the door, where a window was positioned right in the middle, at the end of the little path between that and the dresser and wardrobe to the left. She looked out the window, and smiled when she found that below her room was a garden, and beside that under the next window, which she assumed belonged to Travis's room, was a basketball court, where children were playing. Turning to the wardrobe, she remembered she was supposed to be getting changed, and opened it.

In the kitchen, Travis was still pondering what they could do to make money fast, when Vee came back in looking herself over. She had changed into what appeared to be a black tank top with some sort of dark-colored canvas bands that fastened in the back running across it in three places. Her jeans, as well, had three of the same type of bands, only in studded leather, a few inches up from the ankle, and again above the knee.

"You think there's a reason why almost all the clothing I own in this world has straps on it? I feel like I'm in a strait jacket bodysuit."

"Maybe someone thinks you're crazy. Or maybe Leon did your shopping," Travis said, and Vee just gave him a funny look.

"Hardy har har. So, any money-making ideas?"

"Not really. Except for robbing a bank," he said. "You don't think Leon might have left any around here, do you?"

"Don't know… But before we raid his room, I just had one very far-fetched scheme… If we can scrounge up some cash, I bet we can rent a boat and take a trip to Rockfort."

"What for?" Travis asked in disbelief, thinking he knew what would come next.

"Temporary jobs," she said, with a devious grin.


	2. Rockfort

_Well, time for chapter 2. Hopefully, Nonliving-Nightmare and I will be able to draw more attention to this story..._

Chapter 2

Travis was hoping he had heard Vee wrong. "Temporary jobs on Rockfort? The same one that Claire was trapped on?"

"Yep" Vee said with a look that would scare Wesker out of his shades.

"You can't be serious." Travis said in surprise as he stood up from his seat at the table.

"Get changed." Vee simply answered before walking through the door in the living room, taking her outside to the garden.

"I can't believe this is happening. What is she thinking?" Travis muttered, as he opened the door to his bedroom. Inside, the walls were all light blue. To his left was a large wooden shelf with a number of games and game consoles on it. "Now's not the time to play games...that's what got me into this mess in the first place." He walked pass the consoles and went to a brown dresser and opened it. He sorted through the clothes trying to find something to wear. A few minutes later he was wearing a black T-shirt with the words "Vampire Hunter", made to look like it was written in blood, and an eerie looking background on it and a pair of faded blue jeans.

"I'm just as weird in this world as I am in mine but apparently I'm not afraid to show it here. Wait if Vee was right about us bringing stuff with us then that must mean..." He started and ran to the closet door, pulling it open. Inside were three short swords, a long sword, and a throwing weapon. "She was right. Too bad all these weapons are dull. They could have been of some use" He said with a sigh as he left his room.

The cat, Terwilliker, was circling Vee, trying to get her attention before it finally pounced onto her lap.

"Oh hello Terwilliker. I don't really feel like playing right now." Vee said, gently lifting the cat off her lap and putting it beside her.

"I'm ready" Travis called as he ran out the door.

"About time. I've been waiting out here forever." Vee called with a huff.

"Sorry but I just had to check Leon's room. I found this inside one of his coats." Travis apologized, handing Vee a card.

She read the card silently to herself. "This guy owes Leon a favor and it just so happens he runs a boat rental shop?" Vee asked, thinking about how coincidental it was and how the odds were impossible but then again this was a RE world.

"Yea I say this could be good news for us and it isn't that far away!" Travis said with a smile.

"But don't you think it's a little too convenient?"

"Everything happens for a reason just like us being trapped here and besides consider this a key to a locked door."

"If you say so" Vee said as she got up.

They both walked along the crowded streets, forcing their way through. A few blocks and a dozen falls later, they came to the place where Leon's 'buddy' worked.

"Are you Stanley?" Vee asked a bald man in a suit and tie.

"Yes I am. May I interest you in a boat?"

"Well yes and no. We were wondering if you could do lend us a boat for free?" Vee asked as Travis stood behind her, remaining silent.

"I'm sorry Miss but I couldn't possibly do that." Stanley said apologetic.

"We're asking on behalf of Leon." Travis spoke up.

"Leon? Leon Kennedy?" Stanley asked.

"Yes sir" Vee answered.

"Follow me." He whispered.

Vee and Travis followed him around to the back of a shed.

"Here. You can use this boat but bring this back as soon as possible and tell Leon we're even now." He said as he sneaked back around to the lot.

"I hope Leon wasn't saving that favor for something important." Vee said as she untied the rope keeping the boat in place.

"I'm sure he won't mind, especially after we go and save him" Travis replied, pushing off after Vee had jumped onto the boat. "I guess there's no turning back now."

"Nope" Vee replied.

"Now I hope you're planning on telling me what it is you're planning on doing at Rockfort or is that a surprise?" Travis asked, eyeing the safety raft.

"You'll find out." She said as she laid back in the boat.

Vee was humming to herself on a rather happy note, while Travis just sat there and stared at her funny, whishing she would tell him what they were doing. But she didn't; she just kept humming, and watching the waves glide past the side of the boat. After a while, though, Travis' stare started to get a little creepy.

"Um... Why are you staring at me?"

"Because I'd like to know what we're doing..."

"Making money," she replied with a sweet smile, "Plus I've always wanted to see it for myself."

"What, money?" he joked in an attempt to soothe his feelings of trepidation.

"No, Rockfort, silly!" she laughed, looking around in a cautious manner. "You know, we're going to have to hide this boat somewhere... Otherwise we may just never leave the island."

"What do you mean?" he asked, getting a little more nervous.

"Well, someone might not want us to leave... They might try to keep us there."

"Point taken," he said, looking out over the water. "You're making me more edgy…" He hadn't known her for very long on fanfiction, and he was beginning to think she was psychotic. In his experience, at least, people normally didn't find any sort of amusement in going to Rockfort, or decide to go there of their own free will, for that matter. What was the deal with her? She sat there calmly, albeit maybe a little arrogantly, eyeing her green converses, and murmuring the words to a song.

"… It's gonna be alright. I know that we belong, do you believe it now? Just give it half a chance. Yes I know, we'll still be strong - "

"Whatever you're planning, I hope it works," Travis said quietly, and Vee stopped singing to herself abruptly. She looked at him, and smiled.

"Everything will be alright. Trust me. If it's not, well…"

"Well?" he asked.

"There it is," she said, a solemn expression coming over her as she pointed past him towards the form of the island, now a dark form hanging in the distance, coming closer little by little. "Just follow my lead, and be as composed as you can manage. I'll handle it."

"And what exactly is it?"

"We're going to walk up to the front door."

"No offense, but are you crazy?" Travis asked, his companion seeming to have a few screws loose.

"Eh, maybe. Could be worse," she said, cleaning her glasses. "I like to think that I'm fiercely unique, in an eccentric sense."

"I can see that," he said, watching Rockfort draw closer. That was one of the last places he thought he would have ended up at getting stuck in RE4, but there he was. "Is there any specific reason why you chose this place?"

"Well… Money… and I was hoping for something. It's hard to explain… Like my obsession with Nemesis," she giggled, and Travis didn't ask. She had been secretive up until now about her motives, and he didn't think she'd start talking now when he was about to watch her plan in action.

They found a quiet area on the edge of the island where there didn't appear to have been any activity lately, mooring the boat to a small outcrop of rocks and covering it with a grayish tarp that Vee hoped would help camouflage it. They began their trek towards the manor, observing their surroundings with vigilance. The air itself was heavy and still, quiet in the late afternoon hour.

"This place gives me the creeps," Travis said, wishing he had some sort of a weapon right now. Vee appeared to be on the confident side.

"If anyone's even here, I know what I'm doing."

"You normally go to insane people's places for money?" Travis said sarcastically as they came to a halt a few yards down from their destination.

"Remember," Vee said, "This is for Leon… And so we can get home."

"Let's do this," he replied, trying to gather his assuring himself that this would work, whatever it was. They walked up to the doors, Travis following behind Vee, and she knocked a few times as loudly as she could, rubbing her knuckles afterwards. There was some noise from the other side of the door, and slowly it opened. Standing in the doorway, staring at them like they had just crawled out of a pit hole in the face of the earth, was Alfred Ashford.

"What the - " Travis began, but Vee elbowed him hard in the chest to keep him from saying something he might regret later. She felt bad about it, but better safe than getting butchered, right?

"What are you doing here?" he asked snappishly, and Vee tried to be as polite as possible.

"Alfred Ashford, I presume?" she said, hoping she didn't offend him somehow, "We've come to your island to humbly ask if we could work for you."

"And why would I let you do that?" he asked, looking them over distastefully.

"We have nowhere else to go," she replied, thinking up excuses quickly, "And we live to serve."

He looked intently at them for a long time, before questioning in an apathetic tone, "Why should I let scum into my home?" He thought for a moment, and then added, "What are you really here for?"

"We wish to aid you however you so please, sir, and bask in your greatness." As cheesy as that was, Vee felt that maybe flattery would help them out.

He narrowed his eyes distrustfully. "Filth, like you?"

Jeez, this guy could be critical. "Yes," she said, hoping he didn't notice how hard she was trying not to sound sardonic, "Filth like us."

"There are no opportunities here for people of your… standing. But I'm feeling generous. I will find something that you are worthy to do. Come, stand here. Don't leave this spot until I return," he said, ushering them in, and directing them to stand by the doors. When he had left, and they could no longer hear his footsteps, Travis spoke in an alarmed whisper.

"He died! How the hell is he still here!"

"I don't know… Maybe Alexia had something to do with it. She's probably here, considering he woke her up, before he 'died'…" Vee said, apparently a lot less disturbed by the situation.

"So, are you going to tell me now, how this plan of yours goes?" He was just slightly annoyed that she still hadn't explained herself, and under the current circumstances, he needed to be certain of something at least.

"Think of walking down the street one day, and you see mansion of sorts, and you're in dire straits. You think 'damn those bastards are lucky', and you decide to partake in their wealth a little for a good cause…"

"What are you getting at?" He asked.

She hung her head slightly, and replied, "We're going to rob them."

"You with the tasteless shirt" Alfred said, pointing at Travis "you'll be doing the cooking."

"What? Are you crazy?" Travis asked in surprise. He'd never cooked anything in his life. He had trouble just keeping the microwave from exploding.

"Watch your mouth!" He yelled. "If you refuse to do it then I'llhave no choice but to dispose of you."

"Uh no that's not really necessary." Travis said, waving his hands unconsciously. For all he knew, Alfred might throw him to a zombie dog or worse Alexia. After witnessing what She did to Steve in Code Veronica, he knew that was the last thing he wanted to happen. "I'll begin right now."

"Ugh, if he's not careful he'll get us both killed" Vee thought to herself, her heart beating even faster.

"And you, the awfully cheery one. You'll be cleaning the halls. We're still recovering from our 'unexpected guests' from a few years ago." Alfred said, gesturing to Vee with his hand to start working.

"Yes your lordship." Vee said, bowing but secretly wishing she could hit him with something, and began sweeping. A few minutes later and she was chocking on dust. "How long has it been since this place has been cleaned?"

Travis was in the kitchen throwing random things in a bowl and started mixing them together. " A few eggs, some pepper, a little lettuce, pour some hot sauce, add some water and flour, put in sauerkraut, maybe a little liver, live squid. Great a cockroach fell in. Oh well no one will ever know. Where was I oh yes, some mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup and whatever other condiments, some sweet and sour pickles, meatloaf, mashed potatoes and poof we have a master recipe." Travis said as he began mixing all the ingredients together, the cockroach and other things making a crunching sound.

Vee had bumped into a wooden stand with an expensive looking lamp on it. "Wow! This thing is shiny. It kinda looks like the butterfly lamp in Resident Evil 4." On closer examination, it became clear that it was the same lamp. "How did he get this? Oh well it'll probably sell for a bundle! I'llbe back to get you later."

"Dinner's ready!" Travis called, bringing in a weird looking soup and a hard bread like substance.

"Is that a super solid?" Vee asked, looking at the soup which was somehow a solid and a liquid at the same time. "Is that even possible?"

"You, the one covered in dust and dirt. You shall taste this food to make sure it's not poisoned."

"Do I really have to?" Vee asked, poking the bread thing with a fork.

"If you want to live and serve me, then yes you do" Alfred said with a devilish grin.

"You better have slipped poison into this or something to numb the taste." Vee whispered to Travis, taking a spoon full of the brownish, chunky, soup and a piece of the bread in her other hand. She swallowed both down before turning a palish color.

"This stuff is horrible!" Vee thought, barely managing to keep the food from coming up. She gave a thumbs up to Alfred before trying to walk out of the room without being conspicuous. "Maybe he'll eat it and die and we can just loot the place at once." She thought, grabbing a cup and filling it with water drinking it all in matters of seconds.

"Are you okay?" Travis asked.

"I think so. What on this planet did you put in that stuff?" Vee asked, blinking a few times.

"Just some stuff. I think the roach was what gave the bread a sour taste, that or the sour pickles."

"Please tell me that was a joke."

"Um was that bad?" Travis asked.

"Note to self: Remember to get stomach pumped."

"That was marvelous!" Alfred said, coming into the room and handing Travis a gold coin. "I think you deserve it even though you are just low peasants. I'm sure Alexia will enjoy it."

"Will she be joining us, sir?" Travis asked as politely as he could without sounding too artificial.

"I'm afraid my dear sister is out on business. There are a few rodents that had to be taken care of. She won't be back until later."

"Oh that's too bad. We were looking forward to meeting her, weren't we?" Vee asked, elbowing Travis in the side.

"What is with you and hitting me...! mean yes we were hoping so much that she would grace our presence."

"She is much too good for the likes of either of you. Only the truly deserving have hope of seeing my beautiful sister." Alfred said while leaving the room laughing.

"Seems like someone likes his own sister" Travis whispered to prevent Alfred from hearing. Vee didn't answer, she just walked out the room and returning moments later holding a lamp.

"With this and that gold coin, how much more do you think we'll need."

"Hold on a sec. Is that the thing from RE4? How did it get here? Do you think Alfred is working with Saddler?"

"Stop with the questions. How am I suppose to know what's going on? I'm just as clueless as you are." Vee said, trying to bring her hysterical partner down from the clouds.

"Sorry I lost all concept of reality or well this reality."

After Alfred had fallen asleep, Vee and Travis had split up to loot what they could. Travis somehow ended up in Alfred's room where Alfred was cuddling a teddy bear and sucking his thumb. "Great he probably wets his bed too. No way am I touching those sheets." He mumbled lowly as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He stumbled over a chest in the middle of the floor, causing the whole room to shake and a picture frame to fall.

"Oh crap!" Travis said aloud afraid he might have woke Alfred but to his relief he heard snoring and let out a sigh. "Freaking chest." He said, continuing to search the room.

Vee had found the door that led to the basement. She reached for the light switch and flipped it up but nothing happened. "Not this again." She sighed as she slowly stepped down the stairs, one step at a time. A faint rumbling sound came from a corner of the room, causing her to jump. "Stay calm. Think logically. It's probably just a furnace or a generator or something like that" She said to herself as she slowly moved forward but a thought of Alexander Ashford forced its' way into her head. "This is the only way to get a plane ticket" She said to herself as she took another step.

She heard it again and paused, trying to see something, if anything. Reaching out a hand, she felt her fingertips brush up against something cold and stiff that swayed gently when she touched it. "Smells coppery."

Pulling her hand away, she could feel something similar to the consistency of tar on her fingers. "If that's what I think it is…" She turned around, and walked quickly back up the stairs, closing the door securely behind her and gazing down at what appeared to be congealed blood on her hand. "…Oh God, eww! Figures…"

She jogged to the kitchen, where she found Travis waiting for her patiently.

"Find anything?" he asked, but she ignored him, going quickly to the sink and beginning to scrub her arms furiously. "What happened?"

"I believe there's something dead down there hanging from the ceiling…" she muttered, "But then again, that wouldn't surprise me… What did you find?"

"Old jewelry and stuff… Not much. I did find out that Alfred would be the literal definition of 'kid at heart', though."

"Think we have enough?"

"Probably. Just about everything here has to be worth something. No one found the boat, either."

"Great. We'll leave tomorrow afternoon, then." Vee dried her hands, and sat down on a stool beside a counter.

"Why in the afternoon? We could leave right now, and not worry about him catching us," Travis said, not sure what went on this girl's head.

"I wanted to talk to Alfred first… Besides, we need rest."

"But what if…?"

"We'll be gone before he even realizes… You don't suppose he'd try to find us, do you?"

"If we're in Spain, he'll have a good amount of work... But I hope not."

"He could always have HUNK look for us…" Vee shuddered, and added, "That dude gives me the creeps… And I played him a lot in RE4's 'The Mercenaries'."

"What do you want to talk to Alfred about, anyway?" Travis asked, trying to avoid thinking about what would happen if the Ashford's decided to get revenge when they'd figured out what happened.

"Eh, nothing much…" She closed her eyes and put her head down on the counter. Travis shook his head. That girl was weird.

They were both up at morning break the next day, preparing to run for it in only a few hours time. Travis had gone out to the shore, making sure everything they had gathered was safe, before coming back to attempt making breakfast for Alfred, who was still sleeping. Vee, on the other hand, had wandered off to continue cleaning, and, as she put it, 'picking through their lives'. It was about mid-morning when Alfred got up, and sauntered into the hall, stopping to scrutinize where Vee had recently cleaned. "It looks better," he said and Vee jumped, being caught off guard, "But your work could use a great deal of improvement."

"Good morning, sir," she said courteously, attempting a smile, "Sorry my work is substandard. I'll do better, I promise."

"That would be advised. If you don't, I won't have any need of your services. And if I don't need your services any longer…" he made some confusing hand motions, that Vee assumed was meant to refer to some kind of painful death. "Where is your little friend?"

"Preparing breakfast," she replied, making a face at him when his back was turned.

"Good." He turned back to her, and added gravely, "Do not go near my dear Alexia's room. She's resting, and if you disturb her - "

"I won't, my lord." Vee said quietly, eying the hall curiously. Once he had gone, she went to the kitchen, finding Travis trying to make who knows what.

"The bitch has returned," she said, and he gave her a funny look. "Alexia."

"Uh-oh… If she's here, we're going to have a harder time getting off this island," Travis said, dreading the thought.

"It's okay," Vee smirked, "I have a plan."

"You always have a plan, don't you?"

Travis listened intently to Vee's idea, calling her crazy on several occasions and then followed her out to the hall leading to Alexia's room, where she began singing as loudly as she could, off-pitch. "… 'Cause she's so hhhiiiggghhh, high above me! She's so lovely! She's so hhhiiiggghhh like Cleopatra, Joan of Arc or Aphrodite…"

It wasn't long before a very unhappy (to put it lightly) Alfred came upon them. "You, singing! What do you think you're doing!"

"Nothing, lord Alfred. She's so hhhiiiggghhh - "

Travis was only a foot or two behind Vee, who seemed to be enjoying pushing Alfred's buttons, watching in dismay. Alfred pointed to him. "You, get out of here! Go back to work!"

He ran off at this order, but didn't go back to the kitchen. Instead, he made his way outside and to the boat, where he tore the tarp off and prepared it to leave, hoping Vee knew what she was doing… As usual.

"Be quiet!" Alfred shouted, "Or you'll wake - "

"ALFRED!" Alexia's voice rang through the whole place, sending a chill down Vee's spine. He turned sharply to face the direction of his sister's room. Vee took this chance to grip him in a tight embrace from behind. He struggled furiously, but she didn't let go.

"How dare underprivileged filth like you touch an Ashford!" he nearly shrieked, and Vee laughed, slightly nervous.

"Aww, Alfred, you break my heart," she mocked, "Everyone is below you, everyone is no better than the earth you stand on… You're no better than any of us, Alfred."

"You'll pay dearly for saying that! You will not speak of me in such a manner!" He fought harder, but she kept her grip on him.

"I'm doing that right now. I like you, Alfred… And if you were nicer, so would other people."

"Let go of me this instant! You have no right to do this!"

"Just showing you a little kindness," she said, and released him from her embrace, taking a few quick steps back in case he turned to hit her with something.

Alexia's voice broke the morning ambience again, though, and he started towards her room in a panicky way, just to stop momentarily to glare back at Vee. "You are going to suffer," he growled, and Vee just gave a nod.

"Sure thing, sir."

As soon as he had gone to his sister's aid, Vee bolted, making it to the shore in record time and giving the boat a hard shove before jumping in. As they moved away from the island, she looked back, wiping her forehead with her arm and sighing deeply. "We'll go back to the mainland, sell everything and get on the plane right away… And when we get to Spain, I'm finding a weapons dealer for a 50 caliber rifle."

"Sounds good to me… Hey… What did you do back there? I could hear the screaming all the way from here…" Travis said, looking at her questioningly.

"Something I always wanted to do, aside from taking Wesker's sunglasses," she said simply, smiling. "I hugged him."

_Yes, I know I'm quite strange - I've always wanted to give Alfred a hug... Can you blame me, though, with my 'radiant compassion'? __someone shouts that I'm lying, and there's no such thing as me being compassionate Right, need to go FIX that... Please leave us a review!_


	3. Spain, here we come!

_Well, we're off to Spain! _

Chapter 3

"Right on! We made it and we have enough stuff to afford plane tickets" Travis said jumping up with excitement.

"Sit down or I'll have to hurt you." Vee threatened, she was happy too that they could go help Leon now but she didn't want to see all their hard work sink to the bottom of the ocean.

"Yes ma'am. I'm sorry." Travis said, sitting down and avoiding eye contact.

"Ma'am? How old do I look?"

"Sorry it's just a habit."

"What? Do you go to a private school or boot camp or something?" Vee asked.

"Are you kidding me? I go to a public, rural school where the peoples' necks are literally red." Travis answered, like it was the worst thing in the world. "Doorknobs are smarter than most of the people at my school!"

"Calm down! I didn't mean to make you upset."

"Sorry" Travis apologized, an awkward silence washing over the two of them that lasted the rest of the trip to the mainland.

"Finally we're here" Vee said as she got out of the boat and started to stretch, Travis getting out behind her and tying the boat back to the dock.

"Come on, we have to find a pawnshop and get rid of this stuff." Vee said, dragging Travis behind her.

Vee and Travis walked through an immense crowd of people that were returning home from work. They somehow managed to get through the stampede without being squished. They arrived at the pawnshop 10 minutes before closing.

"Cutting it close aren't we?" Vee asked aloud as she walked through the door with Travis.

"May I help you?" A young man asked, who was inspecting a diamond ring.

"Yes. We have some items we want to sell you." Vee answered, putting the lamp, gold coin, and everything else they had looted from Alfred.

"What do we have here? It looks real." The man said to himself out loud, as he examined the items giving each a price in his head.

"Well? How much can we get for this stuff?" Travis asked.

"I'll give you $5,000 for all of this."

"What do you think? Good deal?" Vee asked Travis.

"I don't know...it would be more than enough to get us there. Let's do it!"

"Okay then, deal!"

The man gave them the money. The two left and started heading for the airport.

"Couldn't we have taken a cab or something?" Travis asked, becoming tired from all the walking.

"Look we're already here" Vee responded in her unusually happy tone.

They bought tickets and awaited for the plane to begin boarding. Once called, they headed onto the plane.

"Welcome aboard and thank you for choosing our airlines. We hope you have a safe trip." The flight attendant said with a smile. "Please buckle your seatbelts. We'll be leaving shortly."

"Is it too late to get off?" Travis asked as he buckled the seatbelt.

"What's wrong?"

"I hate heights and flying. This will be my first time on a plane." Travis responded nervously.

The plane began moving and shortly after the plane lifted up off the ground.

"That's the worst part of a flight, supposedly, that and landing." Vee said, trying to cheer him up but failing miserably.

"May I interest you in something to drink?" A different flight attendant asked.

"No thank you. We're fine" Vee answered.

"Does she look familiar to you?" Travis asked, completely forgetting about his fear.

"No, not really."

"Jill. Come in Jill. How is everything back there? Anything suspicious?"

"Everything's fine Chris" Jill responded into her radio. "You and Barry just keep flying. If I find anything or need something, I'll let you know."

"Jill, get me a sandwich while you're back there and a bottle of wine."

"Okay Barry but are you sure you should be drinking while flying?" Jill asked. How did she get stuck doing all the work while those two goof off?

"We'll be fine. This will only be our fifth bottle."

Vee and Travis exchanged tentative glances.

"Um… Is that Jill Valentine next to us?" Vee whispered, and Travis gave a nod.

"Almost definitely."

"Why are they here?" Vee stared at the back of the seat in front of her and blinking repeatedly, trying to sort it all out.

"No clue," he replied, just for Vee to do something she probably shouldn't have.

"Are you Jill Valentine from Raccoon City S.T.A.R.S.?" she asked suddenly, causing people all over the plane to stare at Jill like she was a disaster waiting to happen.

"Shhh! Keep it down!" Jill whispered, getting right in Vee's face. "How do you know that?"

"I have a friend who survived that disaster, and was a cop… What the hell are you doing here?"

"What do you mean? I have every right to be on a plane! And I should be asking you the same thing!"

"We're going to Spain to… do something…" Travis said, and Jill gave him a suspicious look.

"Look," Vee said, "I won't tell anyone who you all are, if you pretend this didn't happen… And that we're not 'doing something' in Spain."

Jill considered this carefully. "I don't trust you punks, but agreed. If I find out you're up to something, though…"

"We're not." Vee went back to looking ahead of her, thus ending the conversation. When the skeptical Jill had gone off, Travis turned to Vee.

"What was the point of doing that?" he asked.

"I felt like it…" she said thoughtfully, and received a quite confused look. "Plus, you never know… They might show up somewhere, and be useful."

"Right…" he replied, thinking this would possibly come back to get them later… But, then again, so would Alfred, probably.

After a few hours of silence between them, Vee and Travis stepped off the plane in Spain, and wandered out to the street in front of the airport, looking around.

"Well, we're here. What now?" Travis asked, as Vee began waving her hand around wildly.

"Get directions," Vee said, and a taxi pulled up. She tapped on the window, and the driver rolled it down, seemingly annoyed that they didn't just get in.

"Que?"

"Um… Hable angles?"

"Sí. Don't you speak any español?" he laughed, and Vee shook her head, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Not really… It was a mandatory class until 5th grade, and I never paid attention." She got in the back of the car, followed by Travis.

"Where to?"

"Do you know where this town Pueblo is?" Vee said, and the driver gave her an odd look.

"Si, it's about an hour outside of the city, in the countryside. Pretty desolate, though. Why you going there?"

"We're looking for someone." Vee's constant cheerfulness made the driver a little uneasy. "We'll be hunting out there. Lot's of wolves and deer, ya know."

"Aha," said the driver with a satisfied nod to the two teens. "I can't take you into the town, since there's no definite road, but I can drop you off about half an hour from it."

"More walking?" Travis moaned.

About thirty minutes later, the taxi came to a stop, and the driver gave them a 'good luck' before accepting the money and driving off. They began to walk along the stony path in the cold, contemplating what they were heading towards.

"What if we get there before Leon? Or after him?" Travis asked a little fearfully, seeing as they were totally defenseless at the moment.

"Hope that we don't," Vee replied simply, and with that, she paused. "You know… I'm glad we're in this together. If I was alone, I think I would have lost it by now…" She smiled, trying to forget the impending danger.

"I am, too," Travis said, suddenly pointing ahead of them. "Look, there's a road! Maybe it would be easier to walk on than this path."

"You've got a point," Vee said.

Meanwhile…

Leon was watching the Spanish countryside roll by quietly, wondering if he'd actually be able to find anyone in the area who knew anything about Ashley, the president's daughter. The two cops giving him a ride were jabbering about something or other, but he wasn't quite paying attention. His mind was elsewhere, with other people. He didn't notice what they were saying until the driver slowed down the car, with a curious sounding "Pedestrians?"

Ahead of them, there were two young people standing to one side of the road, waiting for the vehicle to pass. They seemed really familiar.

"Wait a minute, stop the car!" Leon said, opening the door and hopping out before it had come to a full halt. "Travis? Vee? What are you doing here? HOW did you get here?" He was overcome with shock, and maybe just a little emotional, considering he didn't seem to be able to make up his mind whether to smile or frown.

"We figured you could use the help," Vee said, and Travis nodded in agreement from his place beside her.

Leon didn't know what to say. He walked over quietly, and pulled them each into a very tight embrace.

"Hey, Leon, you're choking me…" Travis coughed, taking a few steps back when he let go, and trying to catch his breath.

"I just can't believe you're here… How?"

"Well… We made some money fast, and caught a plane," Vee said, and Leon gave her a funny look.

"'Made money fast'?"

"… Is it absolutely necessary that I tell you? Can't it just be one of those secrets you don't tell anyone?"

He shook his head, crossing his arms. "What did you do? You didn't… You know…"

Vee gave him the look of death. "Not if you're thinking what I think you're thinking!" He sighed in relief.

"We pulled a Robin Hood…" she said, and Leon nearly flat-lined.

"What!" he squeaked.

"It was her idea," Travis said, ignoring the glare she gave him.

"Vera! How could you!" Leon looked hurt.

"We were worried about you," she explained calmly, "All the talk going on in the States… Isn't it kinda worth breaking the law to help someone?"

"Well… Maybe not if you're Dr. Kavorkian, but that's beside the point."

"Leon, we… err… care about you a lot. We wanted to make sure you come out of this okay," Travis offered. "Vee was just thinking of you."

"I appreciate the gesture, but… This is could be dangerous. I don't want anything to happen to either of you."

"What's done is done," Vee said, and Leon knew that was true. He didn't have much of a choice but to keep his two companions on hand after they'd gotten this far.

"Hey, can you hurry up already?" the driver called out the window, and honked the horn.

"Come on," Leon said, guiding them towards the car. He ushered Vee in first, then got in himself, and pulled Travis in afterward.

"Who are they?" the cop in the passenger seat questioned, and Leon just answered seriously:

"Friends. They'll be coming along."

They drove along in complete silence for a little while, until the passenger-side cop needed to relieve himself off to the side of the road, and hopped out to do so.

"It's freezing!" he exclaimed to himself, not expecting to receive an answer.

"Then don't whip it out in the woods!" Vee said, leaning out the window.

Leon put his hand on her head, and pulled her back into the car. "I'm still not too happy with you guys."

"We know, we're sorry," Vee said awkwardly, not being used to someone she only knew from playing a video game being mad at her. "I would never plan to do that unless it was for something really important…"

"Sorry," Travis added.

"Aw," he said, smiling a little bit, "I can never stay mad at you two."

"Touching," the driver said with a laugh, as his partner got back in the car.

"Family talk, eh, cowboy?" the other asked, pulling the door closed.

Leon disregarded their comments. "Just drive."

They crossed a rope bridge that hung over a river (Vee trying to pretend that they weren't because she hated rope bridges), and pulled to a stop about ten yards from a cabin nestled in the woods.

"I'll be right back," Leon said, getting out after Travis, but before he could take another step, Vee stopped him.

"We're going, too." She and Travis both knew from the game what would happen if they didn't.

Leon sighed, not so much out of annoyance or anything, just the fact that he couldn't argue with her. She was very independent, and nothing could stop her from doing what she wanted to do. "Okay," he said, "Just stay close. Don't wander off, or anything."

"There's nothing that would convince you to come, also?" Vee said, turning back to the cops still seated in the car.

"Why? Afraid you'll get lost on your way to the house over there? No way," the driver said, and she shrugged.

"It's your funeral."

She walked quickly after the others until she caught up with them, already outside of the house. The door was wide open, letting the cool air waft in, and intermingle with the smell of burning wood that was drifting out to them. They walked carefully up the stairs, investigating the little porch before going inside, Leon with his handgun drawn. There was a creepy dude on the other side of the room, tending the fire. Leon pulled out a photo of Ashley, and held it out to the man.

"I'm looking for this girl. Have you seen her?"

The man muttered something in Spanish, picking up an axe from beside the fireplace and approaching them menacingly.

"Drop it!" Leon said, backing away, but the man didn't comply.

"He's hell-bent on chopping us up," Travis said, "And the door's blocked from the outside."

When the man got close enough, Leon shot the man in the arm in an attempt to get him to drop the axe, but he didn't. After a few more shots, the guy was dead. And, of course, he was not a zombie. There was the sound of tires catching outside, and Leon ran to the window in time to spot a truck driving towards where the car had been left.

"Damn it."

There was a funny beeping sound, and Leon pulled out his radio to be greeted by Hunnigan. While they chatted about hostile locals, Vee poked at whatever was burning it the fire with a stick. "I think there's a liver in this pile of burning wood," she said.

"Who's that?" Hunnigan asked, "You have someone with you?"

"Uh… Yes. A couple of my friends tagged along for the journey, without my permission to do so, I might add."

"Look at the bright side," Hunnigan said, not quite sure what the ramifications of this whole situation would be, "More people, job gets done faster."

When that was done, they went through the doorway, Leon noticing a heap of maggot-covered bones in the closet, while the other two, not too keen on looking at that in real life, wandered up the stairs.

"Leon," Travis said, peering out the window at the villagers outside, "The only way out is the window, and there are maniacs outside."

"I'll go down, and see what's going on. Stay here." Leon jogged up the stairs and took a daring jump out the second story window, somehow managing not to get cut or land in a pile of glass, and proceeded to take care of the crazed farmers while the two pocketed ammo for him.

"We'll be in town in only a few minutes now… Are you as scared as I am?" Vee asked in a very somber tone, her usual cheer having left her at the thought. She'd been in some scary situations in her life, but nothing that would compare to what lie ahead in Pueblo, and beyond that.

"I'm pretty nervous," Travis replied, staying calm, "But Leon will take care of us… Until we can defend ourselves, at least."

There was a sound downstairs, and they heard Leon call through the open door. "It's okay now!"

_Yup. We're in Spain. I made Leon kinda fatherly, might go somewhere with that... It depends on what we decide to do. Either way, hope you're enjoying our journey! Go Team Venture! ... No wait... Go Team America!... Still not it... I'll get it, you'll see... Don't forget to leave a review!_


	4. Pueblo is for Chainsaw Wielding Psychos

_New chapter, my friends. We'd like to thank everyone who has reviewed so far… Thank you with a great big Tarzan yell! See, normally I don't do the yell, but I've got 'Tarzan Boy' stuck in my head… I'm listening to it on my computer right now! Haha! Well… Anyway… peers around at people who're calling me crazy I'm perfectly sane. And the fact that I'm going to format this story a little better will confirm that._

_Now onto the first disclaimer I've done since… Since… Right._

_We do not own anything (including music, people, or common sense), except us. Feels weird writing that… But I haven't done a self-insert fic in ages, either._

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Chapter Four: Pueblo is for Chainsaw-Wielding Psychos

They went slowly down the stairs, taking one last look at the dead dude on the floor, before going outside to join Leon, who had already started in the direction of the town. They walked along in silence, hearing a faint whining up ahead coming from a white dog with its leg stuck in a bear trap. Leon stopped to free the poor thing, before they headed in.

"What are they doing?" Travis mused aloud, and Leon pulled out his binoculars and peered around the tree.

"Farm work… And… Holy shit… They killed one of the cops!"

"Should we go in?" Vee asked, already knowing that they would anyway.

"We have to find Ashley," Leon said resolutely, "This is going to get nasty. Find someplace to hide, quick."

Vee waved at Travis to follow her, and they snuck around back of the first building, while Leon went right in, receiving quite a reaction from the villagers. The two walked quietly as possible, looking for someplace the villagers wouldn't think to look for weaponless Americans. Travis stopped, and pointed to a woodpile where he could easily keep out of sight, and Vee nodded, moving on. Not far ahead, there was a woman working intently, not paying much attention to the riot nearby. Vee tried to look for a way past her, and ended up drawing her awareness when she accidentally stepped on a small tree branch. The woman in blue yelled, and a couple of other villagers joined her, coming at Vee with their 'weapons of mass farming'. She bolted around the building into the center of town, where more villagers (looking for Leon) were. One of them shouted something in Spanish coming towards her, and she just looked at him, dumbfounded.

"Um… Barbacoa?" she said, pointing to the grilled cop. The villagers didn't seem impressed, so she ran into the nearest building she could find… Unfortunately, that was the house where Leon chooses to hide in the game, but he was nowhere around. Hearing the chainsaw starting up, she ran up the stairs and grabbed the shotgun from the wall, running over by the bed and standing back to the wall. What she wouldn't give for some shooting lessons right now…

She could hear the footsteps coming up the stairs, and the purring of the chainsaw. She had no clue how to use a shotgun, despite her family's collection of rifles and such, and there was no better time to figure it out now. She climbed under the bed, hoping maybe he'd go away so she had a little time, but he didn't. He stopped at the top of the stairs, looking around slowly, and then growling as he gradually came at the bed.

"This is it," she thought. But, to her complete astonishment, the last person she ever expected to see jumped through the window and shot the chainsaw wielding psycho, sending him over the railing and down the stairs with a clatter.

"Well, well. What have we here?" Albert Wesker said, kneeling beside the bed to get a better look at the terrified Vee.

"Oh, God! Please don't kill me!" she said, and he laughed.

"Now, what gave you that idea?"

"Call me old fashioned but that's what most people who are bent over someone and holding a gun to their head do." Vee responded nervously, while looking at Weskers' handgun which had a silencer attached.

"Why don't you come out of there. I'm not going to kill you, that is, until you do something stupid." Wesker said, offering his hand to Vee.

"What do I do? I always had a thing for Wesker. Now I have a chance to touch him. I wonder if I could grab his sunglasses and escape before he could kill me?" Vee thought to herself, finally taking Weskers' hand after a minute.

"What is your purpose for being here?"

"I came to help a friend but then those crazed villagers attacked me."

"These aren't normal villagers" Wesker said, cooly, and went on to talk about the parasites and Saddler. Vee lost interest. She already knew all this from the videogame. She started daydreaming about Wesker and her getting married and slaughtering tons of zombies and villagers for their honeymoon. She was rudely snapped out of her daydream when she heard a chainsaw advancing on them quickly.

"Behind you!" Vee shouted as she raised the shotgun without thinking and fired a round into Dr. Salvador's head, causing him to stumble backwards as well as herself from the recoil. Wesker took this opportunity to punch the chainsaw-wielding freak, sending him flying into the wall. Wesker stood over the "man" and fired five more rounds into his head.

"Let's go, now!" Wesker shouted, leaving Vee with no choice but to follow.

"Leon. Travis. I'm sorry" She thought as she chased after Wesker, a sound of glass breaking behind them.

Travis had heard the shotgun blast and the sound of a chainsaw revving. "Leon." He spoke aloud, only to be greeted with a few phrases in Spanish and a flying axe. He retreated backwards from his hiding place as two parasite infected villagers advanced on him. "Great, just what I need. Herb addicted maniacs." He said with a slightly nervous laugh. He backed up into a tree, tripping on a root. He closed his eyes and prepared for the worst but instead he heard a few grunts and the sound of a wire sliding along the ground. He opened his eyes to a woman in a red dress holding a grappling hook.

"Are you okay?"

"Ada Wong." Travis said, his mouth wide open.

"How do you know me? Who are you?" Ada asked, pointing her gun at Travis.

"It's not like that! I'm friends with Leon. My name's Travis."

"Leon? So you must be one of the charity cases then. Figures, that conscience driven fool." Ada said with a slight smile.

"What are you talking about?" Travis asked, becoming slightly confused. _"This never happened in the videogame but then again I'm not in it either."_

"Never mind. Can you use a gun?" She asked but before he could respond she threw him a handgun. "Don't die too soon."

"Wait. There's a key on top of that house where that chicken is. It'll open the locked, grey, steel door. Please hurry...for Leon's sake." Travis said as he picked up the handgun.

"Leon's here?" Ada asked, her face filling with emotion.

"Yes. Please go."

Ada gave a nod and ran off towards the building with her grappling hook ready.

"And that's why she's my second favorite character" Travis thought as he returned to his hiding spot, continually examining the handgun.

"How did he know so much?" Ada thought to herself as she shot the grappling hook, propelling her to the top of the building, the chicken flying away and revealing a key. "This must be it" She said as she took the key and jumped down off the building. A villager had come around from the comer and charged at her. Ada shot him in the head and sent him flying with a kick, her heel smashing his head in. She then ran towards the door, fiddling with the key, and finally unlocking it and rushing inside, the door closing on it's own behind her. Strangely, no villagers followed her. "A crazed-villager deflecting, self-closing door...they're a step up from the zombie-proof ones. I should get one."

"Welcome! What are ya buying?" A merchant across the room asked, opening his coat and revealing a endless supply of weapons and ammo.

"Sorry but I don't do busi- is that a TMP?" Ada asked, her face lighting up as if she was struck by lightning. "I always wanted one! I'll take it and a couple of clips with it."

"Sorry strangeh but I don't sell ammo"

"But your coat is filled with it."

"It's just for show. Now if you wouldn't mind moving along, your narcissism is scaring away my freakishly deformed friends."

Ada just gave him the evil eye, taking the TMP, and continued on, walking through the door and then opening the "hidden" compartment in the floor. She jumped down the hole and walked through some of the tunnel, only to be surrounded by four ganados.

"I see we're going to have to do this the hard way." Ada said with a smile, her adrenaline boost kicking in. "I'm always up for a good fight."

Ada took out a flash grenade as the villagers charged her. The flash blinded the four, giving Ada enough time to pull out her new TMP. It took half the clip to kill the freaks. "Not bad for a warm up but you'll have to send more than these losers to beat me." Ada said, admiring her new weapon before turning and running down the tunnel towards the church.

Leon was doing his best to keep the insane, as far as he knew, villagers at bay. He was running low on ammo and they just kept coming. "What are these things?" Leon asked as he shot 3 rounds into the nearest ones' head and ran up to it and kicked it, sending it into the gathering group.

"Leon. Over here!" Travis yelled from the entrance of the village.

Leon ran over to where Travis stood, a look of worry on his face.

"What are you doing? I told you to hide" Leon scolded.

"I know and I'm sorry but we can keep them at bay here. Use your shotgun."

"Shotgun? What shotgun?"

"You didn't get the shotgun? But I heard a shot- Vee!"

The large group had came dangerously close to the two. An axe came flying at Leon who jumped to the side to avoid it.

"Grenade, grenade!" Travis shouted, blindly firing his handgun.

"Where did you get that?" Leon asked.

"Never mind that! Use a grenade!"

Leon dug through his pack and produced a grenade and threw it in the middle of the crowd, the explosion wiping them out. As more approached, a bell rang in the distance that caught the villagers attention, causing them to turn and run off towards the noise.

"Hey where's everyone going?" Leon called out. Travis just gave him a look like he was crazy.

"Where's Vee?" Leon asked.

"I don't know. She went off to find a hiding place but then I heard a chainsaw and a shotgun and assumed it was you."

"First off where did you get that gun?"

"Uh well...you see... I found it. It was lying on the ground."

"It looks American made." Leon said, examining the handgun.

"We need to find Vee" Travis said quickly, changing the subject. Leon just gave a nod. They split up and searched the village, taking money and ammo as they went.

"Hey up here!" Travis called from the two story house, where the shotgun originally was.

"What is it?" Leon asked, running up the stairs with his handgun drawn, noticing the dead body. "Why didn't this one dissolve like the others?"

"I don't know but look an empty shotgun shell. Someone was here." Travis said, handing Leon the empty shell.

"Let's go. We have to find Vee and quickly!" Leon said, becoming more worried by the second not aware that Vee was with Wesker.

Meanwhile…

Wesker walked through the forest somewhere past the farm route in a somewhat casual manner, seeing as there didn't seem to be many villagers around, and the girl he'd found in Pueblo was on the harmless side. She was walking behind him, although not out of his peripheral vision, clutching the shotgun tightly and murmuring 'OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGod' incessantly. It was just slightly distracting, 'slightly' being a kinder way of putting it.

"What is wrong with you, girl?" Wesker said gruffly, looking over his shoulder at her.

"I shot that poor guy with the chainsaw…"

"'Poor guy'? He was trying to kill us."

"I know… But I still feel bad about it; they were normal people once, you know… And my name's not 'girl', by the way. It's Vee," she said indignantly.

"Albert Wesker," he said, and she just nodded.

"Pleasure. I guess I should thank you for helping me out… But what were you doing there?" Vee was still a little weirded out by the fact that he was actually there in person, rather than sitting in a chair corresponding with Ada from who-knows-where. Nonetheless, she was secretly thrilled – seeing Wesker up close and personal was fascinating. She could almost picture Martha Stewart popping up just to say 'It's a good thing'.

"Looking for something. But that's hardly any of your concern. You said you were looking for a friend of yours, correct?"

"Yeah… I came over to find a friend who came here on business… I found him, and then we got separated again when the villagers attacked."

"Is this friend of yours, by any chance, named Leon S. Kennedy?"

"Well…" Vee said slowly, "Yeah, actually. How… did you know that?"

"I know a lot of things," he responded, continuing to walk, like nothing had happened.

"Um… You're not going to kill me?" she asked hopefully, beginning to wonder exactly where they were heading.

"Maybe, maybe not. Right now, though, I think you could be useful to me," his slight smile gave her the creeps.

"As what? An expert on how not to go about getting around the Spanish countryside?"

"You'll see. And if you do what I tell you, I'll help you find your friends, under a few conditions." He waved his handgun in her face.

"Okay, okay. You don't have to resort to violence," she said, thinking that it was bound to be better than working on Rockfort. She tried to be in good spirits, as usual, and began to hum a tune to pass the time, but deep down she was concerned about Travis and Leon. She hadn't seen them since the town, and judging from which direction they were heading in, Wesker was more than likely intending to travel through the woods for a while, rather than on any roads or paths. Where the hell were they going?

There was no evidence to suggest that Vee was still in Pueblo, and considering the only corpses belonged to villagers, Travis assumed she may have made it out of there somehow. She was relatively good at making quick decisions, after all, however dangerous. Leon, on the other hand, was somewhat beside himself, acting almost like a mother hen looking for a lost chick… No farm/slang pun intended.

"She'll be alright, Leon. Vee can hold her own till we find her, I'm sure," Travis said, trying to cheer him up.

"I hope so," Leon said quietly, "I'd like to see her go off to college…" He sighed, and took a final glance around the now quiet town. "Maybe she headed for the farm. Come on, let's go take a look."

Leon put one hand on Travis' shoulder, leading him up the path towards the farm, which was, unfortunately, populated by a few more people who didn't seem too thrilled to see them. They were quickly disposed off, Travis managing to maim a villager or two, still trying to get the hang of the handgun Ada had given him during their brief encounter. The farm was still, the remaining farmhands going about their work somewhere in the back. The two crept towards the paddock where two cows were standing, watching them intently. Leon hopped the fence silently, motioning for Travis to follow him. Travis lingered momentarily, staring at the Swiss Brown cow, which appeared to be giving him some kind of fierce look, as much as was possible for a cow, that is. He took a couple steps down along the fence, until he was on the opposite side of the Holstein, and then climbed over, still watching the Swiss tentatively. When he went to walk towards Leon, though, the cow came at him. "Uh-oh!" he said, running for the nearest tree, the Swiss Brown following him. Travis managed to get up the tree where the cow couldn't get to him, although it attempted a couple times.

"Leon, a little help!"

Leon came over, and tried to scare the cow away by firing a couple of shots past it, just for the cow to give him a blank look. Of course, the commotion roused the farmhands from their work, and they started to approach, farming implements in hand. One of them, a guy with a pitchfork, went to impale Leon, but the quick-thinking blond jumped behind the cow and the farmer stabbed his own animal instead. He shouted something in Spanish that probably added up to either "I need a new cow" or "burgers for dinner!", and got shot in the face.

When the farmers had all disintegrated into the dirt, the two went about gathering anything useful (Travis also taking a moment to torment the chickens), and met by an exit, which Travis knew led to the giant bouldery-thingie.

"Nothing," Leon said dismally, "No one except those freaky villagers…"

Travis wanted to say something to encourage Leon to think positively, but he himself had no idea what could have happened to the missing Vee… And at the moment, they could really use her sanguine attitude, considering what was coming up. It didn't seem all that possible that she would have gotten much further than them already, and even if she had, she would more than likely wait for them somewhere.

"I wonder where she is right now," Leon said, looking up at the gloomy sky, like he expected to have some sudden epiphany.

"We'll find her," Travis said. They had to; but where had she gotten off to?

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_Yeah… We're tweaking the plot slightly… But it probably would change a little if we were there. This story is pretty fun for me to work on so far, and I must admit, it's interesting getting in Travis' head a bit. Speaking of that, I need to go find the co-author... Ah-hah, here he is righ now! Travis, like to say anything? _

_Travis: I'd like to thank all the reviewers so far. You're comments make our day._

_Yes. Now it's time for my final thought... Huzzah!... That was my final thought, people, seriously._


	5. Uncle Albert

_Oh, geez... I've got music from Evita stuck in my head... Um... Argentina! Yeah... I'm a weirdo... Anyway, new chapter! Thanks to everybody who's reviewed, and I hope you like it. _

_-----_

Chapter 5: Uncle Albert

Vee followed Wesker through the woods in a rather amused mood, singing a lot louder than she should have been. "Terwilliker, thy name we praise. We love thy foul and loathsome ways. Thy crummy criminality…"

"Be quiet," Wesker said tetchily, and Vee just moved onto another song good-naturedly. "We're so sorry, Uncle Albert…"

Wesker was quickly getting irritated. It was one thing for someone to sing constantly, but quite another for them to start making direct references to you with Beatles' songs.

"What will shut you up?" Wesker asked, feeling exasperated at this point. Why did he always get stuck with super-annoying people?

"Probably being somewhere safe, drinking coffee and watching Monty Python… But, I can get by with a CD player… Know where I could find one? I left mine in America. But I did remember some CDs."

"Why would you bring CDs, but not a player?"

"Well… Maybe logic wasn't on my side – I was leaving for Rockfort Island at the time, after all."

"In that case, I'm not surprised." She had told him about how she and Travis got the money to come to Spain – and it wasn't at all unexpected that someone this eccentric, bothersome, and generally mental had worked there for any amount of time. "If you'll kindly refrain from talking, singing, humming, et cetera, I'll see what I can do. Otherwise, I'll kill you."

"That's not fair!" Vee argued with Wesker.

"I could always dispose of you right now."

"No that's fine. I like being in one piece and without gunshot wounds."

"Good. The only two reasons I'm keeping you alive are that you saved my life and because I want you to do something for me." Wesker said, stopping in front of Vee who wasn't particularly paying attention until he said he wanted her to do something.

"And what would that be?" Vee asked, hoping it would be something like disposing of Chris, which she wouldn't really like except for the fact it would make Wesker overly happy.

"You'll see." Wesker simply answered as he continued along the old, grown-up path.

Meanwhile:

"Great now what am I going to do? I always die at the boulder part." Travis thought as he looked down the path to where they would meet Mendez.

"Let's go" Leon said as he started down the path.

"I uh have to tie my shoe. Go on ahead." Travis said as he quickly bent down and untied his shoe just to tie it back again.

"Maybe your right. Wait here. I'll go make sure the path is clear."

"Be careful!"

Leon just gave a look and a nod as he started down the path, seconds later a boulder falling off a cliff that chased Leon down the path. The boulder advanced upon Leon. He dodged to the left as the boulder went on and crashed into a tunnel, causing the boulder to shatter.

"Leon are you okay?" Travis asked, running down the path to join his friend.

"I'm fine." Leon said as he got up and started into the tunnel, Travis following.

"Wait!" Leon said quickly, surveying the area. "There are more of those freaks."

"Let me guess. They have dynamite?"

"Yes how did you know?"

"Lucky guess that's all." Travis sighed, knowing he would most likely be eating dirt and smoke before long.

"You stay here. I'll take care of this." Leon said with a look of concern for Travis. "I mean it stay here."

"What? It's not like I'm going to wander in the middle of dynamite-wielding villagers and disobey you. You should know me by now." Travis said like a joke.

"That's the problem. I do know you and I know you don't listen that well."

"What did you say?"

Leon gave him a look letting him know he wasn't joking.

"Alright alright. I'll stay here. Just be careful."

Leon sneaked closer to the armed villagers, trying to surprise them but to his dismay they had spotted him. The one that had spotted him threw one of his dynamites at Leon who shot it before it could reach him, killing the villager and two that had came close to it.

"Come on Leon!" Travis cheered as he listened and watched the explosions near Leon but it apparently alerted some of the villagers to him. "Oh great. Me and my big mouth."

The two villagers that had approached Travis ended up with bullet holes through the head, revealing an unhappy Leon behind them.

"I know what you're thinking and it wasn't my fault!" Travis said, trying to calm Leon down.

"Come on. Maybe there is something in that house over there." Leon said, pointing at the house.

"Yes maybe Vee is there waiting for us." Travis agreed.

The two made their way to the end of the house where a closet was shaking.

"Stand back." Leon ordered as he slowly opened the closet doors, a tied up man with dark hair falling out.

"Who are you?" Leon asked taking the tape off his mouth.

"Luis Serra." The man answered "Got a smoke?"

"Huh. Sorry buddy." Leon laughed, untying Luis. "What happened here?"

Before Luis could answer, a large man with two villagers by his side burst into the room.

"The head honcho." Luis muttered.

"What? This guy?" Leon asked, before attempting a running kick at the man but the man caught his foot, throwing him back onto Luis.

"Mendez." Travis said with a small fear in his eyes.

"A smart little American child I see." The man answered with a deep voice.

"Stay away from me!" Travis shouted as he raised his handgun but before he could fire he was thrown against the wall by a punch from Mendez.

"Tie them up." Travis heard Mendez say before passing out.

It felt like hours had passed, when Travis blinked a few times, coming to. The blow to his head had more than likely caused a concussion, making it significantly hard for him to focus on anything in particular, or keep his eyes open for that matter. It was very dim, despite an ominous scrub-green glow from what little light hit the walls… And a couple yards away, there were a few people in attendance. He couldn't see exactly who they were, let alone understand much of what they were saying due to his five senses being jumbled. One of them, whose shape flowed and billowed as he moved, came towards him and spoke, the whole scene becoming reminiscent of a bad hallucination as his mind tried to sort out the stimulus… And we're talking bad, like the TV signal on the HBO channel if you don't actually have HBO… Or a '70's-style pot party.

The voice that broke the quiet faded in and out, distorted in the blur of reality. "Feeble human… Humans… Let us give you our power…"

"Should we really inject the kid?" someone asked, and the first voice responded without any thought. "Yeah, why not… What's another ganado?"

There was a pause, and then the first voice took on an annoyed tone. "You made me lose my place… Where was I? Blah, blah, blah, intoxicating power. Yeah, that'll have to do."

Travis felt something sharp prick the side of his neck, and the next time he opened his eyes he found that his vision had improved… But he was someplace different completely. He looked around carefully, still being somewhat dizzy. He had apparently been propped up against the wall, while the other two were tied to each other. When he went to move, he realized his arms were tied behind his back in a very uncomfortable manner. He struggled a little to see if he could get free, waking up the other two in the process.

"Travis, are you okay?" were Leon's first words, while Luis muttered a lot of 'ai yi yi's' to himself.

"Just a tad lightheaded…" Travis said softly, a feeling of nausea coming on when he spoke.

"What's going on here, Luis, is it?" Leon said, studying their foreboding surroundings.

"Americanos, si," Luis said, "Father and son, perhaps?"

"Not quite," Leon sighed.

Travis had started to wonder why people repeatedly insinuated that they were a family. There had never been any mention that he could remember (aside from girlfriends) of any family-type person in Leon's life. Even when they looked around the apartment when they'd first gotten here, there was nothing to give them any clue as to why they lived with him… let alone that they could be much more than friends. Yet, Leon did tend to act like a father from time to time…

Luis shrugged, figuring it wasn't much of his business. "What brings you here?"

Leon managed to get the photo of Ashley out, and show it to him.

"Let me guess, she's the president's daughter?"

"He's psychic," Travis joked, still being able to remember the game pretty well despite the concussion.

"Hey, how'd you know that? Nah, just kidding. I heard the villagers talking about her in a church." He went on to talk about how he was a cop in Madrid, et cetera, until Travis had almost dozed off from boredom. They were still chattering when the axe man came in, looking rather grisly. He raised the axe, probably intending to split their skulls, but at the last second, they managed the rope-cutting maneuver. And in the end, the axe man ended up getting knocked into a wall, standard SNAP! as his neck broke and all.

Luis ran out of there like a bat out of hell… Or like Meat Loaf (the singer, I'm hoping) after the last slice of pizza on earth. Leon didn't waste anytime cutting Travis loose, before quickly corresponding with Hunnigan, and ushering him out of the room. As they neared a small window in the opposite wall, the merchant popped up outside, as annoyingly as ever. "Got something that might interest ya, stranger."

"What the…?" Leon muttered.

"That's the merchant," Travis said, and when Leon looked at him weird, he added, "It's a… cultural thing. All merchant's here dress like that."

He sighed, thinking to himself "That was close."

They wandered cautiously outside, and around back, where the merchant was waiting, with all his infuriatingly repetitive monologue from the game intact. While Leon was busy investing in a TMP, Travis remembered what Vee had said on the way back to the mainland from Rockfort about looking for a rifle… A .50 caliber. And since she wasn't around, he decided he would do her a favor – to cheer her up when they finally did find her.

"Can you find a .50 caliber rifle, by any chance?" he asked the merchant, eyeing Leon cautiously, "Our friend Vee was interested in one."

The merchant laughed, "Now that's a weapon. Does she plan on hunting big game?"

Travis just pretended to be amused.

"I can find one."

Judging from the look on Leon's face, he didn't seem too fond of the idea of Vee with anything quite that dangerous, but he didn't argue; there'd be plenty of time for that later.

In the interim…

Vee had managed to stay relatively quiet thus far, running off list after list of words that rhyme in her head. But she was quickly getting restless, having gotten stuck on the word pneumohemopericardium. She held out for as long as she could before curiosity finally got the better of her.

"Um… Not to break the vow of silence, but I have a question…"

"Yes?" he said gruffly.

"What rhymes with pneumohemopericardium?" she smiled innocently when he gave her a weird look over his shoulder. "And where are we going?"

"We're there," he said, pointing ahead to a house lying in a clearing. Vee knew whose house that was, and she was uncertain of what might happen, but she felt safe enough with Wesker.

They walked in near-silence towards the house, the only real sound anywhere in the surrounding woods being that of Vee cracking her knuckles nervously. They went up to the door quickly, surveying the area for any sign of anyone around. Luckily, the area seemed to be deserted.

"Of course," Wesker muttered with a look at the door, "It couldn't be a normal lock. It had to be a conundrum."

"Oh wait, I'm good at this!" Vee said, and after twisting the emblem crystal ball a few times, she had managed to unlock the door. "I'm sort of a puzzle freak sometimes…"

The door opened to the bedroom, and they entered cautiously. Since no one was around, it seemed like a decent place to take a moment's rest. Wesker lounged on the bed, while Vee flipped through some of the books written in English.

"Eww," she said, putting one of them back on the shelf in disgust. "I saw enough pictures of that to last me a lifetime when I did my animal vivisection project for Anatomy and Physiology."

"I've seen worse," came a voice from behind her, and she turned sharply to come face to face with Ada.

"Ah, so you've decided to join us," Wesker said, getting to his feet.

"Who's this?" she asked, looking the bewildered Vee over.

"Vee," he replied, "I found her in the village, about to be killed. She could be of potential use to us."

"Must be the other one," Ada thought to herself, remembering Travis.

"Let me guess – you owe her a favor?"

"I don't owe anyone anything," he said, casting a dirty look in Vee's direction for no particular reason. "Have you run into Krauser lately?"

"Not recently," Ada said, "Why?"

"Nothing. It'll be discussed later. For right now, focus on the main objective. Oh, and find a CD player somewhere, for her."

Ada raised an eyebrow at Vee, who just smiled sweetly. Amusing; a girl making deals with an autocrat.

She left just as quickly as she had come, leaving the two alone again. Vee knew she was probably still around the house somewhere, though.

She looked out the window, not expecting to see much of anything, but to her surprise, she spotted her friends coming down the path slowly. "Wesker… My two friends seem to have found the way here."

He looked out the window from behind her, and went towards the door by the bookcase. "Don't tell anyone that you were with me. I'll be around, I'll know."

"I won't. Promise," Vee said, knowing all too well what would probably happen.

"We'll be in touch soon." He opened the door, and closed it behind him, leaving her completely alone.

Vee went back the way they had come, deciding that the best place to meet up with them would be outside, since Mendez could be around.

Leon and Travis had just come a very long way, through the quarry, and past a very nice place for fishing, encountering villagers most of the way. They were now approaching a house Travis recognized easily, and he knew what was there. For the most part.

They stopped a few yards down; Leon carefully looking around to make sure it was safe.

Vee came slowly down the stairs, watching for anything abnormal, and spotting her two friends only some yards off.

"Guys?" she said uncertainly, not sure what exactly to tell them. They turned abruptly to see her there, dazed, but nonetheless relieved.

"Oh my God…" Leon said, looking at Vee like she was some freak of nature. He went to her hastily, gripping her in a bear hug that looked rather painful, but she didn't seem to mind. "Are you okay?" he asked after a moment, "I was so worried that something had happened! We looked everywhere… Where were you this whole time?"

"I got lost, and it took me a while to find you … And I'm fine… Just a little rattled," she said quietly, and he hugged her a little tighter before letting go, taking on the tone of a doting mother who just watched her kid deliberately hit someone in the back of the head with a baseball bat.

"Don't do that again," he said semi-sternly, "I have a responsibility to make sure you're safe."

"What? Are you my father now?"

"No," he said, "I'm not trying to be."

"Sure seems like it. I have a father – he's a Vietnam veteran, who has never said a word to me. I don't need another father."

"You think I act like I'm your father? Well, guess what, you're not to leave my sight for the rest of this mission!" Leon was a little resentful about Vee's lack of respect for him trying to protect her. He didn't think she meant it, but she had said it so harshly that it almost hurt… He was only looking out for her, she didn't need to bite his head off about it.

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_Ah... the drama... I've been watching too much Lifetime! And listening to too much rap (although I have yet to speak ebonics in this - don't worry it's right around the corner)! For that matter, I'm watching Tupac Ressurection tonight. So, um, now to my final thought. Yo. That's it. And I'm still trying to think up a good 'team venture' ripoff... Heh. Well, no word from the co-author today - I think he's off partying. Well, hope he has a good time, and hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Leave us a review!_


	6. Anvil

_New chapter, a little longer than usual, and uploaded late due to me forgetting to bring it along with me to the library last Saturday…Um… Hopefully, Leon will be a little more Leon-ish now that he's getting accustomed to having us around. But the whole parent-like thing does play into why we're with him, so that element will remain in some form – hopefully a more manly form._

_And the title of this chapter… Well…You'll see what that's about._

_And thanks for the reviews – especially from halomasterchief and Comrade Baron. You guys rock._

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Chapter 6: Anvil

"Whatever" Vee retorted.

"What's wrong? You're not acting like yourself." Travis asked a little worried.

"I'm fine. Can we just move on? It's uncomfortable standing here in the open."

"All right." Leon answered, moving in front so he could take the lead.

"Oh I almost forgot." Travis said, grabbing Leons' medium sized attache case and taking out a .50 caliber rifle. "You said you wanted one!"

"Wow thanks! It'll go perfect with the shotgun." Vee said, taking on a lighter mood, as she took the weapon and looked through the scope.

"I don't think you should be using that." Leon said, a combination of fear and worry crossing his face.

"Leon, I'll be fine." Vee said, a little calmer than before.

"If you say so." He answered as he began walking towards the entrance of the building with Travis and Vee following, who was still examining the rifle. Leon walked up the stairs and examined the room. Travis was somewhat confused because he remembered a puzzle was suppose to be here in order to get the door open but when he considered every other screwed up thing that had happened in this world, it didn't seem so odd.

Leon had searched the room and found a file and a key. While he read that, Travis was skimming through some of the pages from one the books on the shelf.

"Are all books science or math related?" Travis asked recalling his Algebra 2 and physical science classes.

"Pretty much. They make the world go around. Trust me." Vee answered as she sat on the windowsill and watched the old dirt path. She saw Ada slowly walking up the path before Leon ushered her and Travis through the door only for the three to run into Mendez.

"I see you escaped brothers." He spoke in his deep, dry, voice as he grasped Leon by the throat and continued talking about sharing the same blood until finally throwing Leon to the ground and walking pass the two, giving Travis a cold look and a slight smile. Leon mumbled something and told Vee and Travis to stay there. He slowly opened the door, his handgun drawn, and walked in only to be knocked down by Mendez. Mendez stomped on Leon's chest, trying to either crush or suffocate him...or maybe a little of both.

"Stop!" Vee shouted as she aimed the rifle and fired a bullet through the giant, hulking man's leg.

He just shot her a grimaced look and continued to apply pressure to the American agent. Three shots rang out and came exploding through the window. All three hit Mendez in the back, who released his foot off of Leon and turned toward the window only to see a woman in red. He went charging through the window but the figure propelled upwards, dodging the man by bare inches.

Ada ran down the old dirt path only to be surrounded by ganados and Mendez. She had saved Leon and those other two brats that were with him but who was going to save her? "Love is such a useless thing. Never fall in love." Ada advised Mendez who just stood there silently. A sharp needle pierced the back of Ada's neck. She suddenly felt woozy and quickly passed out.

"A woman in red? Why does that seem so familiar?" Leon asked, though not really to anyone.

Vee and Travis just looked at each other and started laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"It's nothing." Travis said, as he tried to catch his breath.

"I nearly got killed. You find that funny?" Leon asked somewhat angry and sad at the two.

"It's not that Leon. It's just something the two of us remembered." Vee answered, trying to cheer up the depressed Leon though she found it a little funny if not sad.

"Okay I'llbelieve the two of you for now. We shouldn't stay here for long anyway." Leon said, still wondering what the two could have been laughing at but knowing them it was probably something he was better off not knowing.

Vee and Travis followed Leon through the house, exploring nearly every inch. They somehow stumbled into a restroom that had a ganado in it, needless to say it wasn't a pleasant sight. After their unpleasant sights they had heard clawing from inside the oven and opened it to have a chicken fly into Travis' face. Leon and Vee could only watch so long before they got bored of seeing Travis run around with a chicken on his face. Finally Vee went over to him and grabbed the chicken and threw it off.

"Why didn't you do that sooner?"

"It was funny for the first 10 minutes but it got boring." Vee replied, pulling a chicken feather out of his hair.

After their short break, the three continued to the outside where they were ambushed by two villagers and Dr. Salvador. The villagers went down easily enough but Dr. Salvador wasn't a pushover.

"Um Vee I hate to be rude but WOULD YOU FREAKIN' SHOOT HIM!" Travis yelled, jumping back from a chainsaw swing.

"Well if you'd be still and let him cut your head off then I may have a good shot." Vee joked before pulling the trigger, the bullet hitting in the head and killing the freak. Vee also flew back from the recoil, nearly falling on a rock. "Ouch!"

"About time." Travis said with a sigh as he watched Leon finish off two more villagers that had heard the commotion. "How did we end up fighting the chainsaw guy while Leon gets it easy with a few villagers?"

"Luck?" Vee answered a question with a question as she checked her ammo.

"Well it sounds kinda like my luck." Travis replied, looking at the regular handgun he had. "I need a new weapon or at least an upgrade."

"Maybe once we cross paths with the merchant again." Leon answered, walking to them and picking up the ruby that Dr. Salvador had on him.

"Really? You'll buy me a new weapon?" Travis said, obviously thrilled that someone would voluntarily buy him a weapon.

"If you stay out of trouble and do as I say." Leon replied with a stern voice.

"Yes sir!" Travis answered.

The three continued along the path that led back towards the village unaware that they were being watched by more than one threat.

Unbarring the door to Pueblo, Leon turned to them momentarily. "There's probably more villagers around… Stay close."

Travis nodded, while Vee just rolled her eyes, repeating to herself in her mind that, as long as her life wasn't on the line, she didn't need to take orders from anyone except herself. Stepping back into the town, they were greeted by some shouting in Spanish and a whole bunch of villagers. Leon took care of them rather quickly, and they headed for the door bedecked with the cult insignia.

"It's a really sad place…" Vee said quietly, looking at the houses in a disconsolate fashion. She had always had a hard time thinking of Pueblo without remembering the credits of the game, and the credits had the tendency to make her a little somber. "Poor, poor people… But, what's done is done."

"Exactly," Leon said suddenly, going to unlock the door. "There's no changing the past." He paused, contemplating saying something to that effect on the subject of how they had come to be with him, but didn't. He pushed it to the back of his mind, opening the door carefully. The room on the other side was rather dim, and didn't contain much more than a table, some chairs, and a badly kept woodstove… with a wooden box set carelessly on top of it, how intelligent. While Leon looked around quickly for anything useful in the haphazardous room, Travis and Vee went into the next one, where the entrance to the underground tunnel was. Vee prodded idly at the red and white oil lamp overhead, while Travis tried to pry the door open.

"I think it's stuck," he said, and Vee gave him an edgy look.

"You sure it won't open?"

"Positive. It feels like something's holding it down."

"Maybe another plot change?" she suggested, and Leon poked his head around the corner.

"What did you say? 'Plot change'?" he asked, giving her a weird look.

"No, no… I said… 'rot-range'. I mean, look at all the blood and mold on the floor… Travis, maybe you should come back over here for a minute," she said, looking back up at the lamp.

"Uh, why?"

"I'm going to knock it down," she said, examining its angle thoroughly and beginning to look around the floor.

"What for? Then we're not going to be able to see anything." Leon seriously questioned what went on in these kids' minds sometimes.

"Uh… It might loosen up the door… Plus, I'm not walking through that disgusting stuff. There could be anything in that. Like anthrax…"

"The odds of there being anthrax in here are on the slim side," Leon said, trying one last time to dissuade her, but she didn't pay attention.

"See any rocks, or something?"

"Why don't you just shoot it?" Travis asked, going over by the doorway.

"Hell, I'm not wasting any ammo. Here we go," she said, picking up a scrap piece of metal and throwing it as hard as she could. It simply bounced off the glass, nearly hitting her in the face. "Well, that was futile… Maybe…"

She got as close as she could to the lamp without stepping in the stuff on the floor, and jabbed it hard with the rifle, knocking it loose. It swung a few times, and then smashed on the floor, the oil burning for a few minutes afterwards. Satisfied that whatever had been on the floor was probably dead, Vee walked over to where the glass remnants lay, picking up a spinel and tossing it to Leon. "Funny-looking little rock. Try selling it."

They all moved over to the trap door, hoping that it would open now. Leon tried to force it open, but to no avail; something was still weighing it down.

"Maybe we could get it to collapse in?" Travis offered, and the other two seemed to consider it carefully.

"Someone could try jumping up and down on it," Vee said, looking at Leon who was looking right back at her. "If you think I'm doing it, no fucking way."

"Young ladies shouldn't talk like that," Leon said informatively, and Vee gave him something of a disturbed glare.

"My grandmother used to tell me that, and she was born in the '30s… Either way, I'm still not doing it."

"Why not?" Leon asked, "It's simple. Jump on it, and get off when it feels like it's about to give."

"You think I'd get that much of a warning? What if it just went? I don't want any broken bones… Not that I've ever had any to begin with…"

"You won't get hurt. Judging from the map, it probably only goes a couple of feet down," he tried to assure her, but even though she knew for a fact that that was true, she wasn't going to give up that easily.

"How do you know for sure? It could lead to something. Like a bottomless pit."

"There's no such thing."

"Can't you just do it? Why do I have to be involved?"

"Because I'm telling you to," he crossed his arms, and she sighed.

"By all means then, Castro."

Leon just smirked arrogantly, while the irritated Vee stepped gingerly on the trap door. She was certain that he was doing this to prove a point, but she didn't feel like arguing further. You can only bicker for so long before it becomes entirely pointless.

With a nervous sigh, she jumped, feeling the door give a little. She waited a moment to make sure that she wasn't about to fall through, then stepped off, poking at the door with her foot until it suddenly gave a loud creak and opened slightly more.

"I have an idea." Leon dug a grenade out of the attaché case, and wedged it in between the edge of the door and the flooring. The next thing they knew, the trap door was laying smoldering on the foot of the tunnel below, an anvil having been welded to it.

"That is seriously weird… But see? I knew you wouldn't get hurt," he said, and Vee just gave him a dirty look. "Come on."

They climbed down into the tunnel, which was lit by candles, and walked in complete silence until they came to a cavern, lit by another oil lamp.

"Hey, I think there's something stuck in the ceiling," Travis said, breaking the silence. He pointed to where a headdress was somehow anchored into the rock overhead. Leon looked at it for a moment, before shooting it down, and pocketing it.

"Why, do you think, there would ever be something like this stuck in a cavern ceiling?"

"Maybe someone exploded… I went on a tour of a coal mine once, and the tour guide tried to tell me the rust on the walls was blood from a miner getting blown to smithereens during a gas leak…" Vee said, not doubting that it was at least remotely possible in this world, considering what else went on. "… Then again, he also tried to tell us we would all probably die down there…"

"From the looks of it," Travis said, glancing around, "I'd say people have died down here."

Rounding the corner, they spotted the merchant, who didn't seem all that surprised at the sight of them; very much the character of a stalker-type person who just happens to be where you're going, all the time.

"Ah, welcome, strangers," he said rather happily.

"Are you the bastard that welded an anvil to the trapdoor?" Vee said, apparently not so happy to see him.

"Um… Maybe…" he said, taken aback.

Vee walked up to him without a second thought, and socked him right in the face. "That's for… something…"

"I think you might have killed him," Travis said, the merchant having passed out cold.

"He'll be fine… We'll just have to come back later," she said, continuing on towards the tunnel exit.

Leon just stood there, blinking repeatedly and trying to comprehend what he'd just watched.

"Leon, don't you think we should follow her?" Travis said, snapping him out of it.

"Yeah. We should be right around the church now." They climbed up a ladder, and followed a very short path to, where else, the church. Vee was waiting for them at the bottom of the graveyard, talking to a crow perched on a headstone nearby.

"Is that, like, all crows do? Eat decaying stuff and fight with other birds? And then in the winter, your cousins back home sit in the trees and squawk at me when I go for walks…"

"Vee, are you all right? You sure you didn't hit your head, or something while you were off on your own?" Travis said, eying the crow cautiously.

"No. I feel perfectly fine… Thanks for asking." She smiled, her usual cheery self again for the first time in a while.

"I hate to interrupt your conversation," Leon said, pointing up towards the church, "But it seems we have another welcoming committee."

There weren't a lot of villagers, so it didn't take long to get rid of them. Vee and Travis, already knowing the door wouldn't open yet, went over by the bridge to wait for Leon, who was looking at the door and dialing Hunnigan.

"Hey, it's Leon. I'm at the church, but the door won't open."

"And there's no lock for him to pick!" Vee shouted from her spot by the bridge.

"I assume your friends are being of help?" Hunnigan smiled.

Leon exhaled heavily. "If you could call it that."

"Well, find some way of getting in that church. Hunnigan out."

Leon joined the two, as they started along the bridge, knocking villagers off as they got closer to the little shack thing. Leon was the first to hop across the gap in the boards. Travis walked to the edge and stopped, trying not to look down at what lie many feet below, but failing. Vee, knowing how it felt to have acrophobia, came up alongside him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"The first step is not to look down," she said, and he laughed, more out of anxiety than anything else.

"I've been trying to do just that."

"It's okay, just close your eyes and skip over. You'll be fine," Leon said.

"Or, I could always push you," Vee teased.

"No, no – that's okay!" Travis said, deciding that now would be a good time as any to get away from her, just in case. He put one hand on the nearest rope, and took a minute to mentally prep himself, before jumping across. Once over, he leaned against the shack, breathing heavily.

Vee was secretly a lot more bothered by this than she let on. She'd always been acrophobic; for that matter, she still couldn't look over the edge of the second floor at the mall without getting dizzy. She took a deep breath, and held her hand out to Leon, who helped her across. In the shed, Vee occupied herself playing with an angry adder in the corner, while Leon was busy reading a memo that described the location of the key to the church and Travis picked through what useful things had been left there.

"The key we need is past the lake somewhere. I guess that's where we're going," Leon said, pocketing the paper, and then coming to a complete halt when he saw what Vee was doing. "I don't think that's a good idea, Vee…"

"It's okay. I think he knows that I'm not going to hurt him."

"Vera, please leave it alone," Leon said calmly, although from his tone, it sounded like he wasn't too fond of snakes.

"Okay," she said, sounding a little disappointed and then riled, "Just don't call me by my full first name again."

The adder, considerably relieved that she stopped playing with it at this point, slithered off the table and out onto the bridge.

There were some more villagers on the bridge, but they weren't much of a threat, since they didn't seem too used to walking around at that height and ended up falling off. The three made their way through a door that led into a large corral-like structure, where three small huts stood. Next to them, was a large murder of crows, which Vee and Travis decided to chase while Leon looked around. When he was done, they finally went through one of the doors on the other side, finding themselves in a sort of canyon path that led to the swamp area. A lot of wading, avoiding adders, listening to Vee sing "Rolling on a River" happily (despite the fact that Leon explained a few times that this wasn't a river), and shooting villagers later, they came to a path that led to a door. And beyond that door, was the dreaded lake.

They walked up a small hill overlooking the lake, where Leon spotted the two ganados in the boat tossing the body of the other dead cop overboard. Travis and Vee watched in total silence, glancing at each other briefly in apprehension, knowing exactly what would happen next.

"What the hell?" Leon murmured, watching the scene with his binoculars.

A moment after the boat pulled away from the body, a giant salamander, Del Lago, breached nearby, swallowing the cop whole. Leon nearly dropped his binoculars in shock. Vee sauntered slowly over to the water's edge, where she threw up.

"Um, are you okay?" Travis called, still a bit shaken himself.

Vee turned back to them, wiping her mouth with her hand. "Yeah… I think so."

Leon started to walk towards the dock, looking at their surroundings attentively. The two followed, until they got to the other bank, and he stopped, turning to face them. "There's no way around. I'm going to have to cross the lake."

He looked at them deeply for a long time, conscious that this was a horribly dangerous situation. "I… I want you both to stay here and wait for me. I'll be back."

"I think I'm going to go sit down now," Vee said quietly, still feeling nauseated, and walked into the shack closest to the dock.

"Keep an eye on her – try to make sure she doesn't wander off," Leon whispered, and Travis gave a nod.

"Will do."

He watched Leon get in the boat, and start off across the lake, knowing he'd be back in a few hours. He went into the shack, where he found Vee on the floor, leaning against the wall, looking rather under the weather. He sat down across from her, briefly looking around the room.

"So…" he said slowly, trying to make conversation, "What happened back in Pueblo the first time around?"

"Nothing," she said simply, "I got lost."

"How? You know the game really well," he replied, not knowing that she wasn't in the position to be discussing it.

"You know what," she snapped, getting up, "I don't need this right now. I'm going to the other cabin; come get me when Leon comes back." With that, she walked out.

"I didn't mean anything by it!" he called after her, but she ignored him, disappearing into the other cabin. He didn't understand what had just happened. Vee was normally easy to get along with, but lately she had been acting weird. And now, she was mad at him for a reason he didn't grasp. What had happened while she was missing?

Thinking of the unsettling problem, he dozed off, exhausted from everything that had happened so far.

Vee leaned against the wall, mentally cursing herself for yelling at Travis. He didn't deserve that, especially just because he had asked an innocent question. But Vee didn't know exactly how she would explain it, or if she even could, without Wesker finding out. She swore to herself that she would apologize to him later, feeling too guilty at the moment to do it then. She was about to close her eyes, when a voice called her attention.

"Are you alive over there?"

Ada strolled in casually, getting an apathetic frown from Vee, who was very pale. This was odd; the girl normally seemed a lot cheerier than that… But right now, she looked like hell had managed to freeze over.

"What's it to you?" she grumbled, and Ada smiled good-naturedly.

"Not happy to see me? I thought you might like to get out of here for a while."

"Like you actually care," Vee said, and Ada just shrugged.

"Not really. But I did find this." She held up a CD player.

Vee nodded. "Yeah, thanks… Could you maybe go away? I don't feel so great."

"I need to take you to the church, though. Wesker's waiting for us."

She was a little more enthusiastic at the thought of Wesker. "Well, maybe I could…"

"That's more like it," Ada said, waiting for Vee to slowly get up and start following her back to the church.

It wasn't long before Ada and Vee reached the church. Vee's mood had improved reasonably on the way there as she listened to an ABBA cd. Wesker was waiting for them impatiently outside, Jack Krauser beside him.

"Vee," Wesker said, "This is Krauser, the other person you'll be in contact with on a regular basis."

She looked at him for a moment, and then uttered possibly the stupidest thing she could have in the given situation.

"Word up, homie!" Vee said, and Wesker slapped her upside the head.

"Hey! Hands off, Albie! My brain is important to me!"

"Did you just call me - " Wesker twitched quite visibly.

"Hold up, son! I'm not finished yet!"

"I'll pretend that didn't happen," he said, managing to remain relatively calm.

"I still think you're crazy," Krauser said gravely to Wesker, "Bringing an inexperienced juvenile into this."

"You're job isn't to think, it's to do. You've got your orders, now go put them into action," Wesker said in a dangerous tone, and without a further word, Jack was gone. "Vee, go inside."

"Isn't the door locked?" she asked, but when he didn't answer, she just went. To her surprise, the doors were in fact open… Just how she wasn't sure, unless they had been opened from the inside.

Once Vee was inside, Ada took the liberty of asking the question that had been on her mind since this began. "What do you want her for?"

"For now, back up. But eventually…"

"Eventually what?"

"She's going to kill Krauser."

"But she can barely defend herself!"

"She'll know what to do." Wesker seemed confident, either in the fact that Vee would manage to do _something_ at least, or that he'd be rid of her.

Inside the church, Vee had wandered around, examining its contents curiously, until she came to the upstairs, standing face to face with the door to the room that Ashley was held in. It couldn't hurt to see if she's in there, could it?

Vee opened the door slightly, and said, "Hey, Ashley?"

Ashley's whiny voice, at the moment quite timid, broke the silence. "Who – who is it?"

Vee opened the door, and stepped in, looking around until her eyes met with the president's daughter, cowering in a corner.

"My name's Vee. I'm a friend of the guy who's going to come to save you soon. He was sent by your dad. And… Well, I just happen to be here."

"Someone's coming to save me?" she seemed excited.

"Yup, and until that, I guess I'm going to keep you company."

Just as Vee went to speak further, Wesker popped up outside the door.

"I'll be needing your services soon, so don't do anything stupid," he said, leaving her alone with Ashley.

"Who was that?" she asked.

"Nobody… Uh… How 'bout some music, huh? I know a great song that always makes me feel good." Vee changed cds, seating herself beside the slightly bewildered girl, and turning the volume up.

"Guajota luna ajena, under the moonlight," Vee sang along after a little bit, Ashley hesitating to say anything.

"Um... Could we listen to something different?" she asked cautiously. "I don't really want to listen to Spanish music right now..."

"Shut up before I smack you in the face with a 2x4," Vee said, and Ashley shut up right away.

------

_I hope I didn't offend anyone by punching the merchant – It wasn't because he sometimes annoys me, but because… Well, it just happened. Who knows? Maybe it'll lead to a bizarre and entertaining sub-plot, something there seems to be much of in this story._

_And the bit with killing Krauser was something we decided to do to kind of mix things up a little – as if we haven't already done that. We're going to come up with that as we go along. At the moment, I've got no idea how that will pan out… Actually, a slight idea._

_Eh, I got to go work on other stories, now. Please leave a review and tell us what you thought. _


	7. Psycho?

_Longer chapter - mostly because I divided the parts up weird, but it works. Ugh... Don't feel well... I'm going to crawl off to bed soon._

_----_

Travis was awoken by a sudden jolt of pain that ran through his body. He stumbled getting up. He collapsed on the wooden floor of the old dingy shed. He passed out once more only from pain. He felt some shake and call to him.

"Travis get up! Where's Vee?" Leon asked as Travis opened his eyes slowly.

"What?" Travis asked, barely able to comprehend what was going on around him.

"Where's Vee?" Leon asked once more only to have Travis to shake his head unknowingly.

"The last time I saw her, she snapped at me and said she was going to the other shed over there." Travis said, pointing to the shed. He and Leon quickly ran over to the shed only to find it empty.

"Great. Where could she have gone this time?" Leon asked to himself, trying to figure out how this girl thought. He had known Vee for a while but still he didn't understand how her mind worked.

"It's all my fault." Travis said, scolding himself. "If I had stayed awake and watched her like you said to then she would still be here."

"I doubt that. It's not your fault. Vee would have went off on her own with or without you." Leon said. "First we need to find the key and rescue Ashley."

"So that means we'll be crossing the lake right? What about that creature we saw?" Travis asked, knowing that it was most likely dead or gone by now but it was better to be on the safe side than to get eaten.

"I've taken care of it." Leon said, ushering Travis to the dock to where the boat was.

"Just what I wanted to hear." He thought as he sat down in the boat near the many harpoons.

"Leon. How many of these did you use?" Travis asked, having always wondered how an infinite amount of harpoons had fit on a boat.

"How did you know I used them?"

"Uh well you see...it's only obvious that you would use them when fighting something on a boat." Travis replied, quickly thinking up something even if it wasn't really logical.

Meanwhile with Ada:

Ada looked at the scar on her leg where those freaks had attacked her with an axe. She had also nearly been crushed by one of the El Gigantes. It was harder than she thought it would have been to get back to the village. It seemed that the villagers had become more organized in the time she had been incapacitated and they seemed to have learned a few new tricks like sprouting parasites from their heads. "It was all because I tried to save Leon. I guess this is another scar I can add to my collection because of him. I guess I'll never learn. I guess it's true that love hurts." Ada thought as she waited outside the church, knowing she needed to leave as soon as possible before Leon and his other companion arrived to save Ashley and that overly eccentric girl, though she had been acting odd. She couldn't exactly leave though. Wesker had disappeared without a word and she wasn't sure if he had wanted her to babysit the two girls. Just as she thought that, her radio beeped.

"Where are you?" Wesker asked, the village in the background.

"I'm still at the church." Ada said in her usual calm self.

"Why are you still there? Retrieve the sample!" Wesker barked, only to have Ada hang up on him.

"Whatever you say boss." Ada said sarcastically to herself with a small chuckle as she thought about Leon once more before walking away toward the village path, leaving some ammo near the door just in case Leon needed it.

Ashley was cowering in the corner of the room. She hadn't realized that Vee had been joking about the 2x4, at least somewhat joking. Vee felt like she could easily go on a killing spree with her bare hands. She had been changing little by little. "What's happening to me? Is it because I miss my world? Or is it this game? Or have I adopted the attitude that belonged to this world's Vee?" She thought to herself. So many questions were going through her mind but none with an answer.

"Uh...Vee?" Ashley asked in her irritatingly whiney voice.

"What? Can't you see I'm thinking? Do I really have to get a 2x4 to shut you up?" Vee snapped mainly because she was annoyed but she also found it a little funny to watch Ashley cower in fear.

"I'm sorry! Please don't kill me!" Ashley pleaded.

"Have you never seen a horror movie? Mostly every person who begs for their lives gets killed shortly after."

"I don't watch television." Ashley replied, wishing she could fade through the wall just to get away from this lunatic. "I'm usually busy with helping daddy with his campaign."

"You help your father win votes for President?" Vee asked, trying to think of all the things this blonde, useless girl could possibly do. It didn't take her long to think of some things but she figured it was better left unsaid.

"Yes I helped make posters and..."

"Okay shut up I'm tired of talking to you." Vee interrupted, as she turned her cd player back on and turned the volume full blast.

With Wesker:

Wesker had been pushed back into a locked gate. He could have easily jumped over it or punched it down but where would the fun in that be? The noise of chainsaws starting up made him a little uneasy though his expression was just a cold frozen stare at the only path where they could attack him from. He wasn't necessarily worried because he had enough weaponry to take down most threats at this point but the numbers were the only issue. He thought the village had been cleansed by the American agent and Ada but it seems more had gathered to replace him. "Like a gray hair, if you pluck it two more sprout up." Wesker said, speaking from experience as he ran a comb through his hair quickly. Several villagers came running up the path, some carrying dynamite while others had farming tools or nothing at all. Wesker was bracing himself when a shot rang out and hit a dynamite wielder, blowing the whole group up. Ada jumped down from a building holding the semiautomatic rifle.

"I could have handled them on my own." Wesker said blatantly.

"Get over yourself." Ada said, taking out the TMP she had bought from the merchant. "We have more company."

Two Bella Sisters and a Dr. Salvador came running after them.

"They're completely innocuous." Wesker said as if he were invincible.

"We'll see when your head falls to the ground." Ada replied without hesitation. She wasn't afraid to disagree with Wesker.

"Now's not the time for this, though if I get lucky, they'll at least cut your tongue off."

As the chainsaw wielders came closer, Ada and Wesker both changed into a combat stance, their weapons aimed.

With Ashley and Vee...Again:

Vee had turned her back to Ashley for the blonde's perfect video game body irritated her. Vee heard Ashley move about or whimper every now and then but she didn't bother to turn around and look. As the cd that had been playing finished, Vee was hit over the head with something heavy. She watched as Ashley scurried out of the room. The last thing that Vee heard before passing out was a click from the door being locked. "Great." she mumbled and passed out. Ashley ran out of the church as fast as she could. She didn't know where she would go but she knew she had to get away from where she was now. She ran down the cemetery pathway, hoping that she wouldn't encounter any monsters.

Meanwhile…

Leon and Travis had crossed the lake, Travis getting completely soaked in the process from a combination of the rain and lake water. When the boat was docked, Travis climbed out and shook himself off, getting most of the water that was on him all over Leon, whom wiped the water off of his face and began to walk towards the door. They'd be at the waterfall soon, and then back to the church where they'd been in the first place, to pick up the president's daughter.

As they walked, at first along a path and then across a rushing river, Leon got wondering to himself where Vee kept going off to… And why.

He knew from experience that girls went through moods from time to time, so her behavior hadn't seemed completely bizarre, but that didn't explain why she kept disappearing. Even if she had wanted to be alone, she wouldn't isolate herself in any place remotely dangerous, least of which this crazy place.

They made their way down the side of a cliff slowly to the dock system, and a little while later, after much jumping around, climbing and shooting, they made their way into the cave that had been behind the waterfall.

"I'd assume this is the key to the church, since its shaped like the indentation in the door," Leon said, calling up Hunnigan really quick. While he was talking, she seemed more interested in looking at his surroundings, as well as his young companion.

"Where's the other one?" she asked out of curiosity, noticing that there was only one person with him.

"Around," he replied. But exactly where was 'around'?

Back in the church, Vee had come to with quite a migraine. She laid on her back for a while, hoping that her head would stop hurting, but knowing it would take a while. That was the part about headaches that sucked the most.

"Dumb bitch," she muttered "I'll get her back for that."

She looked over at the door. "No windows in here… I wonder…"

Slowly, Vee got up, feeling a little unsteady on her feet. She walked carefully over to the door, taking the doorknob in a tight grip and rattled it a little. It wasn't on there so secure, meaning that either someone had managed to disjoint it, or the person who put it on had no idea what they were doing. She had some experience with the latter; the man her mother co-owned their house with hadn't read the directions when he'd put a new doorknob on her bedroom door, and the first time she'd attempted to turn it, it came right off. Maybe that could work here.

Vee continued to rattle the knob for a while, and when nothing changed, she slammed into the door with her shoulder, which didn't do anything either.

Reconsidering her options, she looked around for her .50 cal, picking it up and bracing herself against a wall since she still felt a bit light-headed, before taking aim.

"Ha!" she said when the doorknob landed on the floor a few feet away and the door creaked open, "Score one for the psycho!"

She made sure she had everything, and then wandered back out, determined to find Ashley and take her back to Leon and Travis, even if she had to drag her. When she got downstairs, she paused. "Maybe I should leave a note on the altar, just in case they get here before I do…"

She pulled out a pen, scrawled something onto a piece of paper from her pocket, and left it there, hoping they'd find it. With that, she stepped outside, closing the door behind her, and looking around through the relative gloom. Vee knew that Ashley probably wouldn't take the bridge, considering the huge gaps, so she would have gone back towards Pueblo.

She started down the path, cracking her fingers idly, and listening to Ace of Base.

Down in the tunnel, Ashley had gotten lost and had been wandering around in circles for what felt like hours. So far, she hadn't run into anybody, which on one hand was a relief, but on the other hand, if no one was around, then how was she supposed to be rescued? She remembered that the crazy girl, Vee, had said she was a friend of the guy her father sent to get her… Her father wouldn't have sent anyone as doubtlessly hazardous as Vee to get her out of here, would he? Even so, if being rescued meant that she'd have to be around that whacko again, then she felt that maybe she'd have a better chance staying with the cult.

Making a random turn, she found herself in front of a ladder, leading up into a building. When she was about to climb up, a voice spoke behind her.

"Yo."

She turned abruptly, almost screaming when she saw who it was. Vee stood there looking at her very critically, obviously feeling bitter about getting hit over the head. When she took a step closer, Ashley backed away until she was up against the ladder, trying hard to stay composed.

"You have a five second head start," Vee said maliciously, "Better commence running now. 'Cause when I catch you, you're going to wish that your father was a janitor."

Ashley didn't need to be told twice; she immediately got up the ladder, and bolted through the house, stumbling outside into the darkness. Before she had gotten more than five yards from the front door, Vee tackled her, pinning Ashley on the ground and holding her arms down.

"Please don't hurt me!" she whimpered, and Vee seemed to give it some thought, looking up at the sky meditatively.

"I don't know… You did try to harm me, after all."

"I'm sorry!"

"Uh-huh. Someone like you?" she shook her head, and then grinned deviously, eying Ashley like a terrier might a rat. "I think I'll start by breaking your legs…"

Ashley started to sob before Vee mused further, "And then I'll cut off one of your thumbs…"

The blonde was a weeping mess by now.

"And to finish it off, I'll take a long, sharp instrument and position it just above your left eye," Vee illustrated this by placing the tip of her pointer finger against Ashley's forehead, "And then hammer it into your brain with a mallet."

Ashley let out a shrill whine that made Vee cringe momentarily, and then take on a more serious tone.

"If I don't, will you cooperate?" she asked, and Ashley nodded vigorously, still in tears.

Vee gave her a smile. "Don't cry, I won't actually hurt you. I feel much better now."

Ashley sobbed harder, partly because she was relieved that she wasn't about to die, but more because she was upset that someone would actually joke around about something like that. "How could you do that to me?"

"Hey, that's what you get for knocking me out. Next time, I won't be as generous to just use wordplay," Vee cautioned. "You're lucky I know the mechanics of putting on a good act."

There was some talking nearby, and Vee looked over her shoulder, sighed and then whispered to Ashley, "Don't move, and don't say anything."

Wesker came walking towards them, looking a little bloodier than usual from the encounter with the villagers not very long ago, while Ada went on her way.

"What happened to you?" Vee asked, getting to her feet, but keeping a watchful eye on Ashley, "You look like you just committed a mass murder."

"I should be asking you the same question. You were just on top of the President's daughter," Wesker said, giving her a weird look.

"Funny," Vee replied, "She attacked me, so I chased her down."

"He's that guy who was at the church," Ashley said quietly to no one in particular, and Vee gave her a sharp look.

"Don't speak unless you're spoken to. Speaking of churches, you should be getting back there. Get going."

"Just me?" Ashley said worriedly, getting up.

Vee nodded, having thought better of going back there with her. "Yup. I'm going on ahead, so I'll be seeing you later."

"But what if - "

Vee got right in Ashley's face. "Just do it. And if you tell anyone that I was with somebody - " She drew an invisible line across her throat with her thumb.

"Okay, okay!" Ashley replied, hurrying back towards the insignia door without further ado.

"Where exactly are you heading?" Wesker asked in a suspicious tone, and Vee thought about it for a moment.

"That house… By the big gates… That you have to go through the farm to get to," satisfied that that was a suitable description, she added, "I'm going to wait for my companions there."

"I'll escort you," he said decidedly, "It's probably full of ganados."

"I didn't know you cared, Wesker," she said, grinning.

"I don't."

"Sure you do. You're like Ted Kazcynski on the outside, and Elmo on the inside!"

He stopped, and turned to her, raising an eyebrow. "Who raised you?"

"The news and PBS."

"That explains it all," he said, continuing on.

They headed towards the farm entrance, surprisingly not encountering any ganados. Feeling that maybe there weren't any around, Vee took the liberty of opening the door herself. "Seems pretty vacant."

It was really dark beyond that point, and taking a few steps forward, Wesker right behind her, she ran right into something – make that someone.

"Jeez!" Vee shouted, jumping into Wesker's arms, at which point he dropped her flat on her ass.

"Don't ever do that again," he warned.

She, of course, was too busy figuring out whom it was in the shadows to pay attention. "Oh, it's only the HUNK of junk."

HUNK, coming into a patch of dim light, crossed his arms, probably frowning (of course, only he can be certain). "Not exactly the sort of greeting I would expect."

"What do you want?" Wesker said, and HUNK pointed at Vee, who was getting to her feet.

"Her," he replied, "The Ashfords are seeking reprisal."

"Oh, snap! Dawg, you didn't see nothing!" Vee said, hiding behind Wesker.

"Look," Wesker said seriously, "She works for me now. If they want her so bad, _they _can come and get her, not some haz-mat emissary."

HUNK sighed. This was going to be a hell of a lot harder than he anticipated.

"Hey, HUNK…" Vee said suddenly, peering around Wesker's shoulder, "I'll arm-wrestle you for your gas mask… They don't call me 'Arnold Arms' for nothing."

In the meantime…

Leon and Travis had made it back to where they had started, in the corral thingy with the three huts. Travis knew what was about to happen, and tried to prep himself.

"It's just like being at a zoo, except you're in the same cage as the animal," he thought, and Leon came to a halt in front of him.

The gates had been closed, and a whole bunch of villagers came running in, pulling on ropes that were tied to something still out of sight. They fought with it for a while, and then an El Gigante stomped in, taking a moment to smash every last villager, before focusing its attention on them.

"Yikes, that thing is huge," Leon said, briefly forgetting they could die.

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_"HUNK of junk", huzzah! I love calling him that, but I don't know why... And yes, I was raised by the news and PBS. I still kinda am, for that matter._

_Well, like it or not, leave us a review and let us know! And here's some coffee!_


	8. Janet Reno

_Shorter chapter, but it's an interesting one! I wrote the part with Saddler, and since I couldn't remember his monologue off the top of my head, I improvised - somehow, he always becomes kinda senile when I write his parts..._

_-----_

Travis was more nervous than he thought he would be when the El' Gigante came stomping at him. He quickly raised his handgun and opened fire on the large creature, the bullets going into the flesh with little affect on the creature. The monster raised its' fist and launched a full force punch at Travis. Leon had jumped and rammed Travis and himself out of the way as the punch exploded into one of the shacks behind the two, sending fragments of wood everywhere. Leon took out his TMP and shot multiple rounds into the gigantic creature. Travis assisted Leon with handgun fire until it swayed backwards and leaned down. A giant parasitic looking creature burst out of its' head and swung back and forth for a moment. Leon took advantage of the situation and ran on top of the creature to where the parasite was. He took out his knife and began slashing at it until the creature knocked him off. It let out a roar and charged at Leon. Leon quickly dodged to the left away from the monstrosity. It turned its attention towards Travis. It slowly strode toward him. Travis backed into a corner without noticing. The creature was preparing for an attack when a gray animal jumped at its face. The monster roared and grasped at the animal but it was too fast for the slow, dumb creature.

"About time!" Travis shouted happily. He was glad they helped out the dog after all. The dog lured away the monster, allowing Travis to escape from the corner he was trapped in and giving Leon time to reload.

"Stand back!" Leon shouted intensely as he raised his TMP once more and fired round after round into the creature until his clip was empty.

"Leon, what's up?" Travis asked, somewhat nervous as the dog was starting to take a beating from the El' Gigante.

"I'm out of ammo and the handgun has little affect on it." Leon answered, a little worried himself.

"Well why don't you try knifing it to death?" Travis joked knowing that it was not at all funny given their current situation. Leon just gave him a glare which Travis knew meant 'not right now'.

As the two were discussing their inevitable deaths, the creature had grabbed and thrown the dog. It luckily landed on a soft area on top of the cliff. It stood up and ran away, leaving Leon and Travis to fend for themselves.

"Oh crap!" Travis said with surprise and nervousness in his voice. The dog was pretty much invincible in the game but this was a real world in itself, making everything killable.

The El' Gigante grabbed a tree and swung it at the two who were standing close together. Leon had to force Travis down to dodge the tree.

"It's called 'duck' kid. Get use to it." Leon said with sarcasm and half a smile.

The monster had closed in on the two and was getting ready to squash them both with its' foot. Leon had ushered Travis behind him, hoping that it would help somehow. A hooded figure jumped down on the back of the El' Gigante, shooting 5 shots into it's back. The person did a back flip off of the monster, landing in a crouching position like that in the movies. The person pulled off the robe. It was a young female woman wearing a combination of red and black with her hair up in a ponytail. She took out a sniper rifle and fired multiple shots into the creature's head until the parasite revealed itself once more. Leon ran and jumped on its' back and began slicing at the parasite again and jumped back off. The El Gigante grasped at the area where the parasite used to be before falling over. A sack of money fell off the side of the monster. Travis went and picked it up while Leon conversed with the woman that had saved them.

"Claire. It's been a long time." Leon said happily, glad to see the woman he had escaped Raccoon City with. "Just what are you doing here?"

"I received leads that Wesker was spotted somewhere around here awhile back." Claire informed Leon.

"So that must mean you're still looking for Steve then, huh?"

"Yes. I've got to know if he's still alive and the only person capable of confirming that is Wesker."

"Why are you putting yourself through all this?" Leon asked. Ever since her escape from Rockfort Island, she had been obsessed with finding Steve and stopping Umbrella.

"He saved my life numerous times. I have to return the favor." Claire said emotionally. "You're the last person I ever expected to see here. What's your story?"

"The President's daughter was kidnapped. I was sent to find and bring her back safely." Leon said in a strictly business sort of way.

"I see you're still as professional as always. You need to loosen up and have some fun!" Claire said energetically.

"It's hard to have fun when you're surrounded by crazed villagers and unnaturally huge monsters while also looking after two kids."

"I see. Hey Travis! It's been a while hasn't it? I see you've grown. So how are you?" Claire asked as she ran over to Travis, who was examining the gigantic, dead body.

"Uh. You know who I am?" Travis asked confused. He was caught completely off-guard by her enthusiasm in such a dangerous situation.

"Oh come on! Of course I know you. It's only been what two years?"

"Uh, if you say so." Travis said, becoming frightened by Claire.

"Travis, be nice. You know she's a friend of ours." Leon said. Leon knew that Travis never really liked Claire but she was a good friend of his and he didn't want Travis to be rude to her.

"Right. Sorry Claire I was just surprised to see you. It has been a while. Why don't you join us? It seems you're heavily armed and a great fighter."

"I wish I could kiddo but I have to find Wesker and beat the information on Steve out of him but I have a feeling we'll see each other again. I'll see you around." Claire said, giving each a hug and running in the opposite direction they were traveling in.

Meanwhile, Ashley had returned to the church as Vee had ordered. She was afraid she would run into those freaks that had put her there in the first place but it was eerily empty. She went back to the room she had been locked in and huddled up in the corner and started wondering who was scarier, the ganados or Vee.

Leon and Travis had continued on their way back to the church, not encountering much of anything out of the ordinary. That is, until they wandered back up the short path that led from the front of the church to the bridge. Waiting there for them, were three seriously weird looking dogs that began to growl upon spotting the pair.

"I don't think those are normal dogs," Leon said, watching them with a mixture of curiosity and unease.

"Really? What tipped you off? The abnormally large jaws, or the one with tentacles?" Travis asked sarcastically, as the one in the middle seemed to sprout several white appendages from its back. "Maybe we should kill them?"

He didn't wait for an answer before shooting the one closest to him in the head a few times, feeling relieved when it fell over dead. He didn't have any time to fire before the other semi-normal one started to come at him, drooling. He stepped back, taking a shot mid-movement and managing to hit it in the chest. The stunned animal staggered forward a little, almost falling on its face. Travis didn't hesitate to use this opportunity to shoot it in the head, killing it.

Leon, on the other hand, wasn't having such an easy time. The creature had managed to stall him from shooting by half knocking him senseless with its tentacles, and when it finally paused to see what he was about to do and he went to aim, it knocked him down and went for his throat. Leon struggled with the beast, just barely keeping its jaws from clamping shut on his face, until Travis shot it in the back and the dog turned its attention to him. As soon as its back was turned, Leon got to his feet and shot it repeatedly in the back of the skull, until it keeled over and disintegrated.

Wiping drool off of himself, he nodded to his young companion, going up to the church door and using the key, finding some ammo in the process. It was quiet inside, and much warmer than the outdoors. Going in after Leon, Travis left the door open a crack, just in case. They then headed for the altar, looking for any clues or useful things.

Leon paused to pick up a piece of paper left there and read it. "Vee was here," he said contemplatively, with a slightly grave tone. "She left us a note."

"She was?" Travis said, wondering exactly what she had been doing there on her own. "Are you sure its from her?"

"At the top of the page, it says 'THIS WILL CATCH YOUR ATTENTION!'," he looked up from the page with an expression that seemed both lightly amused and concerned about how apparent that statement really was. "It could only be. Plus, she signed it 'I still think it's a river'. Damn it, it wasn't a river."

"Never mind what it was; what did she write?"

" 'To Leon and Travis: Didn't mean to run while we were at the lake, but sometimes I need to do my own thing. I checked on Ashley for you, and she's (hopefully) fine. I'll meet you a little ways from here, by some gates near a house. Good luck!' "

They exchanged glances, and looked up towards the ceiling, observing the door that Travis knew should lead to Ashley. And, oddly enough, all the steel gates were up. That didn't come as a huge surprise, though, considering the weird changes that had already occurred in the plot.

"Ashley's probably in there," Leon said, pointing to it. "Let's go find out."

They crossed the room, to a ledge where a ladder was bolted to the wall. Travis followed him up, and stood aside in case the whiny president's daughter decided to throw something. Leon pushed the door open carefully, and they heard a shout of "Don't hurt me!", followed by Leon nearly getting nailed in the face with a piece of wood.

"Ashley?" Leon said, a little taken back by her reaction.

"Who are you?" she asked, ducking behind a barrel.

"Leon. I was sent here to take you back home - " he started, but she cut him off.

"Is that nut job Vee with you?"

"No…" Leon replied slowly, not fully comprehending the situation.

"Thank God!" she exclaimed, coming out from her hiding spot. "She's crazy!"

Leon shook his head slowly. Somehow, he wasn't totally surprised to hear someone say that. "Did something happen between you two?"

"I thought she was going to kill me!" Ashley explained. "She barely ever stopped threatening me at all!"

"She can be like that from time to time," he replied, "Just ignore her."

"It's a little hard to ignore someone threatening to mutilate you." She crossed her arms impatiently, annoyed by the fact that her rescuer didn't seem to care all that much about it. "I won't go unless you promise to keep her away from me. Will you?"

"Yeah, of course." Leon didn't bother to tell her that they were going to be meeting up with Vee in a while, thinking that that would save a lot of time. "We should most likely get moving now, before they figure out we're here."

He led them out of the room and back to the end of the ledge, where, after much rigmarole from Ashley about climbing versus jumping down and the word 'pervert', they were on the first floor again, walked around a corner and found themselves face to face with whom other than Saddler.

"I'll be taking the girl," he said, looking them over from his place by the altar.

"Who are you?" Leon asked, and Saddler gave him something of a smile.

"Osmund Saddler, leader of this fine religious community," he said, just for Leon to ask another imminent and obvious question.

"What do you want?"

"Uh… I forgot what I was going to say…"

The trio exchanged peculiar looks. Travis was just slightly weirded out by the fact that Saddler seemed to have memory issues in person. It was probably just another plot change, one that had gone slightly wrong for purple-wearing sovereign. Either way, it was interesting.

"Well, I want to take over the world. No longer will the United States think that they can police the world! Wait… I ended two consecutive sentences with the word 'world'… Now it's three. Oh well, we kidnapped the president's daughter, and gave her something to remember us by before we send her back home," he finished, confident that he hadn't sounded like a total idiot.

"Leon, I think they injected me with something!" Ashley said. "… What's going to happen to me?"

"You'll see; it'll be neat!" Saddler said with a smile, completely oblivious to the fact that, at the moment, he seemed a little slow on the uptake. "And then you'll both be under my control."

"That - " Leon began, just to be cut off by Saddler in a fashion similar to the way Ashley had.

"Anyway, get out," Saddler said simply, motioning to the door with a flick of his wrist.

"Wait… You're not going to try to kill us?" Travis asked, completely bewildered by how he had changed from the original cult leader.

Saddler didn't respond, apparently too interested in something else.

While his attention was averted, Leon took the opportunity to lead them out of the church quickly. Unfortunately, one thing that hadn't changed in the plot was the fact that the graveyard was swamped with disgruntled villagers.

Meanwhile…

Wesker could barely believe that Vee had asked such a stupid question… or that HUNK had actually taken her up on it. It had been about 45 minutes since they had started arm-wrestling, using a rock for a table, and they were presently still tied. Not that he hadn't been annoyed for the previous three-quarters-of-an-hour, but Wesker was getting impatient. If they stayed there for much longer, someone would in all probability end up running into them. Unconcerned about anything that could go wrong, the two were having a casual conversation.

"You know, I will have to report your location. More than likely, they're going to kill you sooner or later."

"Uh-huh," Vee replied, not interested in the topic of death. "Talk about something else."

"Well, if you miraculously avoid getting killed, what are you going to do with your life?" HUNK asked randomly, expecting a run-of-the-mill answer.

"Become Janet Reno."

HUNK presumably gave her an odd look. "You want to be the attorney general?"

"No, I want to take over Janet Reno's identity and live as her for the rest of my life. Yes, it was an idea. Maybe someday, if I get bored with my career."

"Are you two almost finished?" Wesker snapped suddenly, and Vee glanced back at him over her shoulder.

"I think so. We're getting nowhere. If I don't die, I'll challenge you to a re-match," Vee said, getting up and jogging after Wesker who'd already started walking.

They continued on towards the farm in silence, unaware that they were being tracked by not only HUNK, but Claire as well.

In the meantime…

It was needless to say that the graveyard was a bit bloodier than before after Leon and Travis got through killing villagers with torches. With nothing left to do and the bridge they had crossed to get to the lake chopped up, they went back down into the tunnel, Ashley acting way more spineless than usual. She had considered telling them exactly what happened with Vee, but thought better of it, afraid that the psychotic girl would act out her threats.

-----

_Mmm... Janet Reno's dance party... Man, I would so go to that. Well, short on words right now. Leave us a review, and let us know whatcha think!_


	9. Interrogation

_Another chapter in this super-weird story... This is now going somewhere..._

Chapter 9

Wesker and Vee somehow managed to get to the area where Leon and Luis have to survive the horde of Ganados. They had to fight through a large group of farmers on their way though with Weskers' superhuman powers and Vee's rifle and shotgun, it was easy work. Vee hummed happily to herself as she sat on a large pile of wood. Wesker, of course, was annoyed by this and shot a death look at her but Vee was burrowed too deep in her thoughts about Leon and Travis and what they were suppose to do here and if it was really as simple as help Leon beat the game.

"Wesker." Ada spoke, seemingly appearing out of nowhere to. The appearance of the secretive woman caught Vee's attention. She saw Ada whisper something to Wesker, who's face became brighter than normal. Ada once more disappeared into the secluded area. Wesker, with a smile spread across his face, walked over to Vee.

"I have some business to attend to for now. I assume you're going to wait for your friends. I'll summon you when I need you." Wesker said with a grunt before turning his back to Vee and walking off.

Vee just shrugged and grabbed her CD player, awaiting the arrival of her friends and possibly any other unexpected guests.

"Wonder who I'll run into next." Just as soon as Vee thought this, a barely audible voice called to her.

"Um excuse me. Miss?"

Vee looked up to find a very shy girl, who was wearing green pants, a white shirt with green sleeves, and a med kit around her waist, smiling serenely at her.

"Hello. I'm Rebecca Chambers. You wouldn't happen, by any chance, to have seen a guy with brownish, spiky hair and an irascible attitude around her would you?" She asked, using hand motions to describe the person she was talking about.

"Do you mean Chris Redfield? He was flying the plane I was on to come here." Vee said carefully, not sure what or why Rebecca was here. She just marked it off as a plot change.

"I knew they wouldn't wait for me!" Rebecca said angrily. Everyone always picked on her and she specifically told Chris and the others where to meet her. "I thank you for the information you provided. Please be careful. This place is extremely dangerous." Rebecca added as she digged into her kit and pulled out a first-aid spray and threw it to Vee, who clumsily grasped at it. Rebecca took the path leading to where the El' Gigante was. Vee mentally wished her luck and hoped that she wouldn't end up a big, blood-soaked spot on the ground.

After that strange encounter, Vee wouldn't be surprised if all the characters from Resident Evil were to pop up out of nowhere...most already making an appearance. Vee went about her business listening to music. She eventually lost awareness of her surroundings when her mind was enveloped by thoughts and senseless explanations to the weird things that had happened and continued to happen. Vee felt a sudden shaking and immediately came back to reality to see a grinning, blood-covered Travis and a bruised, disappointed looking Leon.

"How could you just run away like that?" Leon asked angrily, trying to hide his emotional relief that she was safe.

"I'm sorry okay but there was something I had to do and you know I'm not good with waiting around." Vee retorted with a matter-of-fact attitude.

"I'm just glad you're safe." Leon said.

"Oh. Hello Ashley!" Vee said happily, barely noticing the cowering girl.

"St-stay away from me you psycho!" Ashley screamed and began flailing frantically.

"Is she okay?" Leon asked the two, apparently expecting the two to be able to relate.

"It's all her fault! She's evil and she's---" Ashley began.

"She's...uh...going through a rough time right now. She has just been kidnapped and threatened, Leon." Vee answered, quickly covering Ashley's mouth with her hand, not wanting Ashley to let out any information about her secretly meeting with Wesker. Travis gave her a weird look, knowing something was definitely going on. Leon, being his clueless self when it came to teenagers and young adults, concluded that it was best to not even ask.

"What's going on?" Travis asked, pulling Vee aside after she had whispered something to Ashley that had made her whimper and to remain silent.

"Nothing. Geez, don't be so paranoid."

"Something is up with you and I want to know what it is! It could all of us killed!" Travis emphasized but Vee just looked away.

Before Travis could demand an answer, two large groups of Ganado flanked the four. Leon pulled Ashley into the small cabin while Vee and Travis followed Leon, both glaring at each other.

"Leon, catch." A voice said, as a piece of metal came flying toward the four. It rushed pass Vee's and Travis's head, who both let out a small sigh of frustration.

"Would you watch where you're throwing things! If that had hit me, then I would have shoved it down your throat!" Travis yelled in anger, only to have Vee knock him upside the head with her hand. "What was that for?"

"Now's not the time to be losing your cool. We need to be prepared for when they break through." Vee said, justifying her actions.

"Ashley, go hide upstairs! Travis. Vee. The two of you go upstairs also and keep things under control up there! We'll keep things safe down here." Leon said, throwing around orders and demands. Everyone agreed and headed for their positions. Ashley hid in a closet, Travis watched the stairs and window to the left of the stairs, and Vee watched over the other windows, checking behind her occasionally to make sure Travis was alright. Sounds of glass breaking, ladders colliding with windows, and bookshelves overturning followed by multiple handgun shots, and a grunt or two were the only things that were heard at the start of the raid.

Travis leaned out the window to shoot at a crowd that had gathered by the ladder. He took a moment to throw the ladder down and attempted to shoot any that tried to raise it back up. A ganado somehow made it pass Leon and Luis and attempted to cut Travis in half as he leaned out the window, only to be shot in the head by Vee.

"Be more careful will you?" She warned, turning around and shooting a ganado in the head that had climbed in through the window.

After several minutes passed, Leon and Luis came running up the stairs, occasionally turning around to fire down.

"Vee, hand me the shotgun. I'll watch the stairs!" Leon yelled, firing a few rounds into an advancing Ganado's head.

Vee tossed Leon the shotgun, who fired it into a large group of ganados.

After several more minutes and a mass amount of blood and wasted bullets, the battle was over. Luis had disappeared outside into the dark, leaving the other four to go about their business. The four walked outside to a lever and two closed paths.

"Which way?" Leon asked himself aloud.

"Vee, what do you think?" Travis whispered softly to Vee, not wanting Leon to think something was up.

"Well this whole mess all started with this part of the game. Maybe if we went that way, we would be teleported back to our world." Vee responded.

"We think we should take the left path." Travis and Vee said in unison, rather happy about the thought of going back home.

"Okay then, it's settled. The left path it is." Leon said in a monotonic voice.

Ashley just stared at the evil, frightening Vee. It was apparent that Ashley was plotting something but Travis and Vee were too happy to notice and Leon was to busy concentrating on getting the reckless kids he was charged to protect out alive.

It was oddly quiet beyond the door to the left path, which, given the fact that there used to be ganados there, was slightly anomalous. They walked in complete silence until they came to the ladder that leaned against the end of the platform and Leon turned to them.

"You three stay here while I go take a look around. And Vee - " he added, taking on a disenchanted tone, "Don't run off again. Please."

"I won't," she said, meriting a suspicious look from both Ashley and Travis.

With that, he climbed up the ladder and walked off to explore while they all stood there silently, exchanging tense glances. After a few moments, Vee was starting to get tired of being stared at.

"Would you both quit looking at me?" she said, and Ashley somehow found the courage to make a snide remark.

"Why would it bother you unless you were up to something?" she asked accusingly.

Vee frowned, looking over to her nonchalantly. "Don't make me break out the ice pick, Blondie."

"I don't think you have the guts – and besides, my father would have you thrown in prison, or better yet, Attica!" Ashley shouted.

"For one, your father sucks so bad at being a president, that I don't find him remotely threatening, and two, Attica is men's prison, stupid."

"Vee, what is with you lately? You bit my head off at the lake, you and her seem to have this intense enmity towards each other," Travis said, pausing to point at Ashley, "And you've started acting like a homicidal maniac. What happened, because there is something you're not telling us."

Vee didn't respond right away, crossing her arms irritably and listening to the sound of chainsaws starting not far away. "Nothing happened. I can't wander around and get in a bad mood without being interrogated?"

"She was with some guy in black," Ashley said without hesitation. She was tired of keeping it a secret for the oddball, and at this point she wasn't as afraid of what Vee had to say about it.

"What is she talking about, Vee?" Travis inquired brusquely, but Vee just shrugged, scowling in Ashley's direction.

"I don't have the slightest idea. Probably some figment of her imagination," Vee replied in an ill-humored manner.

"Who was it!" Travis insisted.

"Fabulous," Vee muttered, rolling her eyes. She casually took aim with her rifle and fired, causing Ashley to shriek. Travis turned back to face the way they'd come, just in time to see the Bella sister in blue collapse to the ground with a "YAGH!", blood spurting from a large hole in her head. Apparently, she had found her way back towards the entrance, and was sneaking up behind them while they argued.

Vee climbed the ladder, stopping momentarily to look back down at them. "I wasn't with anyone," she said miserably, therefore ending the argument temporarily, and headed off down the platform.

Travis didn't know what she could possibly be hiding that stubbornly, but he didn't like the sound of it.

"Ashley," he said, thinking back, "You said it was a guy in black? What did he look like?"

"Well, blond, sunglasses…"

That could only be one person.

Vee traipsed along the platform, spotting Leon up ahead looking over various wounds he'd obtained while fighting off the one Bella sister and her cronies. She was hoping fervently that the other two didn't say a word about the subject of the argument to him.

"Is everyone alright?" he asked, and she gave him a nod.

"Yeah, they should be up here anytime now. How about you?"

He smiled briefly, contented by the fact that she actually cared enough to ask. "I'll be fine. You feel okay? You look really pale."

"I'm just a little nervy. It's nothing, really," she said, "I just need some time."

"Okay," he replied, "If you want to talk about it, you can always talk to me."

"I'll keep that in mind," she said, wondering what would happen if she did tell him, and then dismissing the thought, climbed down one of the ladders. "Hey, uh, Leon? While you guys look around here, can I see what's on the other side of the door? I promise I won't go far."

He thought about it, and, waving to the others who'd just gotten on the platform, answered, "Go ahead. We'll be right down. Just don't wander off."

She went through the door, closing it behind her and looking around for any sign of monsters. Satisfied that there was nothing around, she went to the next door over and went in, confident that now she'd get a moment of peace to think. She closed the door, just to be greeted by a voice. "I have a message for you."

She stopped, turning slowly to glare at HUNK. "Holy shee, man… Do you have a fixation with hiding close to doors, or something?"

"Your previous employer would like a word with you," he said, handing her a visual radio, and she found herself facing an irate Alfred.

"My dear sister and I know what you have done," he said somberly, "You will be returning to us, to compensate for your actions."

"Uh… We didn't do anything…" Vee of course knew he would never fall for that, but she hoped it would buy some time for her to think of something better.

"What are you trying to pull? Of course you 'did something', delinquent!"

"But we did it to come over here and help our friend not to die. That's sort of noble, isn't it?"

He didn't seem all that impressed. "Regardless, you will be back. And those you associate yourself with won't be able to protect you or your little friend. If they try, the earth will be painted red with their blood."

"That sounds a lot like something I heard in history class, said by Saddam Hussein…" she said to herself, just quietly enough that he couldn't hear her. He continued.

"You will live to regret your actions – no one escapes from the Ashfords," he said arrogantly.

"We'll see about that," she said, and then singing a quick 'I'm off with the wraggle, taggle gypsies, o', she cut the transmission short, handing the radio back to HUNK.

"Bold, but very idiotic," he said, but she didn't seem so concerned. "You're one batty girl, you know."

"Yes, that's been established already," she said impatiently, "Any minute now someone's going to come in here and - "

"Vee, are you in here?" Leon said, opening the door, and Vee turned to face him abruptly.

"Uh, yes…"

"Are you sure you're okay? You seem jumpy."

"Yeah, I'm great." She looked around, but there was no sign HUNK had been there. He'd gone as fast as he'd come.

"Come on, we're going to see what's beyond this area," he said. "…And I think I should keep an eye on you – you don't look so well."

"Fine," she said, not bothering to argue, and headed for the door.

As they began to leave, she thought back to what Alfred had said, and the memory of a rhyme from Gormenghast crossed her mind. "'Good bye, Miss'… Whatever her name was… 'Watch me get your whole family. 'Cause I'm as mad can be'… Something, something… 'You and me'".

_You know it's always a sign that I'm running out of ideas for my part of a chapter when I quote whatever I'm watching on PBS! This time, it was Gormenghast - damn, I wish I remembered the rest of that rhyme... _


	10. From Bad to Worse

_Getting about mid-game now… Weird. It feels like just yesterday we started this…_

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Chapter 10: From Bad to Worse

"Vee, how are you feeling now?" Leon asked, peering down into what appeared to be a large canyon or something of the sort.

"I'm fine. Really Leon." Vee said, trying to convince him to leave her alone for a while. Ever since HUNK had appeared, she was worried about what would happen if he were to show up again while Leon, Travis, and the blonde idiot she so despised were around. Travis was already suspicious of her and the life-sized Barbie Doll had a big mouth. If she was caught talking with him or Wesker, then things would become even more complicated. No matter how much she wanted to, she couldn't let things become even more out of hand as they already were.

"If you say so. I'll never understand how women think." Leon muttered to himself, taking the path down to where the cabin was. After rummaging through junk and finding some ammo and somewhat useful files that had no business being there, the four returned and took the path to where the gondola was but not before Vee spotted the merchant and waved, only to have him shake and shiver in fear.

At the end of the path, Leon ordered his companions to wait for him there. Grabbing Vee's rifle, who complained momentarily but was ignored, Leon stepped onto one of the moving carts. Vee, who was very upset, was about to storm away and take her anger out on the merchant but Travis stepped in front of her, barring her path.

"Would you mind stepping aside, please?" She asked irritably. "I'm not happy."

"No, Vee. Tell me what you've been up to." Travis demanded, but Vee just pushed passed him.

Travis and Ashley turned around when they heard multiple shots but Vee continued walking down the winding path, cracking her knuckles.

After turning back around and noticing Vee was gone, Travis ran down the path in an attempt to catch up to her but after getting to the bottom, Travis noticed a figure dressed in black standing by Vee. His arrival startled the figure who disappeared in a flash.

"There's only one person who can do that Vee!" Travis yelled, walking to her. "Tell me what's going on."

"I don't know what you're talking about. You must be imagining things." Vee said, dismissing him with a gesture of her hands.

"Vee-" Travis started but was interrupted by Ashley's screaming.

"Great, the Barbie has gotten herself into trouble once more. You can go handle that." Vee said happily, walking up to where the merchant was cowering in fear.

"Er!" Travis growled through his teeth, becoming somewhat frustrated with both girls, as he started running up the hill to find that Ashley was being attacked by a lone villager. Travis fiddled with his handgun quickly and was about to shoot when three bullets came protruding through the skull of the villager, collapsing to show Leon holding a smoking gun.

"Are you both okay? Where is Vee?" Leon asked, becoming somewhat worried.

"It's alright Leon. I'm right here." Vee said unenthusiastically, leisurely walking up the hill.

"I cleared the path. We need to go now." Leon stated.

The four loaded onto the steel transport, feeling crushed, and rode it down to the bottom. At the bottom, the four squeezed out of their cramped positions and back on solid ground. Leon motioned for the three to follow him, which they did. They took the path to the left that led to where Ada was nearly chopped up into pieces in the game. Leon swung around the corner with his gun raised, ready to fire. A villager lit one of the dynamites it was carrying and started to run toward the four. Leon shot the dynamite and did a classic cool guy pose after it blew the villager and it's surroundings up.

"Leon, please never do that again." Travis begged, looking somewhat confused after the whole experience. "No offense but that's just scary coming from you."

Vee just gave Travis a weird look and used the only explanation she could think of and concluded that he must be crazy. They continued to explore the small area until Travis stumbled upon the chest with one of the cat's-eye.

"Could come in handy." He said quietly to himself, pocketing the item.

Ashley paced back and forth slowly, while Travis and Leon looked around, watching Vee cautiously, who'd taken up brooding to herself near a path leading to more doors. The girl showed no sign of doing anything, though; she appeared to be deeply lost in thought. When their little group had reconvened, the unusually quiet Vee walked ahead of them, eying the surrounding woods guardedly as though she figured there was something lurking nearby. This, of course, was missed by the ever-oblivious Leon, but not Travis who knew from what he'd seen that something was definitely up.

The walk to the site that would become Mendez' final resting place was awkwardly silent, and when they reached the doors, Leon ordered his three companions to stay outside while he took a look around. After he had gone inside, Travis decided to find out what the heck was going on.

"I know what I saw back there," he said, and she became fairly riled by the statement.

"Are you Schizophrenic? I was not with anybody!" Vee yelled, looking around at the woods.

"You can't deny it anymore, Vee; we've both seen you. What are you trying to hide?"

Vee knew that Travis was right. He'd seen them himself less than an hour ago, and repudiating everything he and Ashley were saying was becoming futile. But she couldn't just come out and say what was going on either. So she stood in complete silence, staring at the ground.

"I want to know what's going on, right now," he said steadfastly.

Vee shook her head slowly. "I… I can't tell you…"

"You're going to get us all - "

"Please don't say anymore," she interrupted quietly, and then looking the building over, added, "It's awfully quiet in there… You don't suppose…"

At that exact moment, Leon came back outside, making both Vee and Travis jump.

"Nothing much in there, except for this," he said, holding up what appeared to be Mendez' glass eye.

"It's like a bad sequel to Captain Ron," Vee murmured, studying it oddly.

"There was no one in there?" Travis asked, wondering why it had been so quiet.

"Nope. Come on, we should get back now before someone does show up."

Travis and Vee exchanged questioning looks, despite the ongoing battle. If Mendez wasn't in there, then where was he, and why didn't he have his eye?

With that in mind, they followed Leon uneventfully back across the ravine, and down to where the entrance leading to the castle was. He held the eye up to the retinal scanner until he heard the door unlock, and went to throw it over his shoulder, but Vee stopped him.

"You know what, maybe I'll hang onto that," she said, taking it from him and pocketing it.

"You want to keep it?" Leon said in disbelief, looking at her like she was insane.

"Yeah. I'll put it with Cuppy," she said, smiling for the first time in a while.

"Don't bring that up," he responded, looking a bit ill at the thought.

"What is a Cuppy?" Ashley asked, apparently a little disturbed.

"A cooked fish head I keep in a jar of alcohol. It was from the first fish I ever ate in a restaurant that still had the head attached," she explained, and the blond girl looked like she'd just had a stroke, but it did shut her up. "I even made him a top hat."

Thinking it might be best to move on before the conversation got much further, Leon led the way through the entrance. It was deathly still on the other side of the doors, and as they walked up the hill, nothing happened. There was no sign of any villagers, or the truck that was normally there. Everything was completely still.

This change bothered Travis slightly, considering the disappearance of Mendez earlier. He tapped Vee on the shoulder to get her attention, but she didn't respond, being too rapt in whatever she was thinking about.

"Vee, this is getting weird…"

"What?" she said, looking around to realize how empty the area was. "Oh. No last-ditch effort from the village?"

This all was very confusing and odd. The other plot changes had been seriously weird, but this was highly unsettling – it seemed like everyone that was usually in that area had disappeared.

They crossed the drawbridge, entering the castle and taking a look around. No one. There didn't appear to be anyone in the vicinity. Maybe someone had gotten there before them?

After a long stroll around, finding random things, they went to head inside.

"Um… I think I'll stay out here for a little while longer…" Vee said, before Leon could fully open the door, and received skeptical looks from all of them. "What? I need some more fresh air. I don't feel so great."

"Okay, Vee. We'll be back out to get you when we're sure the area's clear," Leon said. He trusted her enough that if she was feeling a bit under the weather, he assumed she'd stay put.

He led the other two inside, while the fatigued girl stayed behind, leaning heavily on the wall. Everything felt like it was starting to fall apart, and one false move could completely destroy the whole foundation that was already established. Travis was onto her, Alfred wanted to kill her, and if he didn't, Wesker probably would.

When Travis had seen her with Wesker earlier, he had stopped by briefly to inform her that he would be needing her assistance very shortly… He just didn't say with what. She sighed heavily, wondering what was going to happen, when she was greeted by a familiar voice.

"I thought you should know," said Wesker, coming up to her from the left, "That I am aware two of your companions know about me."

"It wasn't my fault," Vee replied nervously, turning to face him directly. "I didn't tell them."

"Well, what do you intend to do about it?" he asked astringently.

"I don't know… They haven't said anything yet… Maybe they won't."

"You should hope that they don't say anything. Because if anyone tries to mess up my plans, you're the first person who's going to hear about it," he said, almost amused by the effect the statement had on Vee's expression.

"I'll keep that in mind," she said with a shudder as he turned to walk away, and eventually flitted off.

Vee was very uneasy at this point. Was she like a magnet for trouble, or something?

As if that question had been the instigator for a whole other problem, at that very moment, she heard another voice from behind her.

"Vee, what were you doing talking to Wesker?" someone asked calmly, but in a tenor laced with mixed emotions.

"Claire," Vee said cheerfully, failing to hide her anxious tone as she turned and spotted the obviously upset woman. She wasn't totally surprised by the fact that Chris' sister had shown up and knew who she was, but why now of all times? "I – I can explain. It's not what it looks like!"

"Then what is it?" Claire was feeling a combination of hurt and aversion. She just couldn't fathom how this girl that she had known for a while now could ever get mixed up with someone like Wesker.

"Please don't tell Leon!" she pleaded, "I don't know what he'd do - "

"Probably disown you," she said somberly.

"That sucks," Vee muttered, at a loss for other words, and the normally jovial Claire took on a dark tone.

"You are going to explain to me and him both what is going on, right now."

"But – I can't! Wesker will kill me!"

"You will," she said, picking up a twig and snapping it in half. "Or I'll hurt you."

Vee swallowed hard. She had her doubts that the typically placid Claire would actually do that, but not wanting to find out for sure, she pointed to the door dejectedly. "Come on, we'll go find him."

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_Okay, time for me to go get busy on finishing some things… Leave us a review and let us know what you think!_


	11. What Are You Talking About?

_Hmm... Well, the plot is going somewhere now! ... I've really got to work on my author's notes a little... And yes, the title is seriously lame, but I'm uninspired, and a really fat guy is right next to me... Ah, and thanks for all the reviews so far!_

Chapter 11: What are you talking about?

Vee was literally being dragged down a path by Claire in their pursuit to find Leon. Walking around a corner hastily, Claire rammed into Travis, causing both to fall down.

"Um, I don't mean to sound rude but would you please get off!" Travis asked as nicely as he could given the fact that Claire was sitting on top of him.

"Sorry about that, Trav." Claire said, quickly getting up and bowing to show her respect.

"My name is Travis not Trav." He mumbled angrily, giving Claire an evil glare while her back was turned.

"Did you say something?" Claire asked, spinning around quickly and almost falling again.

"No, just stay away from me!" Travis said loudly, taking two very large steps back to avoid the walking hazard.

"You have no right to talk. You're worse than she is." Vee said, grinning widely.

"Alright, enough. Claire, did you need something?" Leon interrupted, apparently irritated by the whole skit he was forced to witness.

"Oh right. I found this one sneaking around with Wesker." Claire said, pointing at Vee.

"What? Is this true Vee?" Leon asked.

"Yes. I'm sorry. I had no choice."

"What were you thinking? He could have killed you! You knew that." Leon said scoldingly.

"I'm sorry, okay. He saved my life in Pueblo. I couldn't just not follow him and end up dying now could I?" Vee apologized, throwing in a sarcastic question.

"You could have went and found Leon. What you did was reckless and dangerous." Claire stated. "Especially after everything he's done to all of us already. You're just lucky he didn't recognize you."

"Wait. What are you talking about?" Vee asked, confused.

As she did so, a group of about 4 or 5 monks carrying scythes burst into the room and charged them from behind.

"Where'd they come from?" Ashley asked, grabbing onto Claire's arm, who tried relentlessly to shake her off with no luck.

"We'll talk about this later. Right now, we have to get out of this alive." Leon said, taking his weapon out of it's holster and firing a round in the closest one's leg. "Go on ahead. I'll stay here and make sure no more come through after this."

"I'm staying to help Leon. Travis, take this." Claire said, digging into her pack and pulling out a Blacktail handgun. "This Blacktail is more powerful than the handgun you carry now. It's a well-rounded weapon. Take it just in case there are more enemies up ahead. We'll join the three of you shortly, okay?"

"Yea, thanks Claire." Travis said sincerely, taking the weapon and running to catch up with Vee and Ashley.

Meanwhile:

"What are you going to do about the kid?" Ada asked Wesker, watching Krauser sharpening his knife and secretly wishing he'd slip and cut his hand off.

"Hm. She's still of some use to me and besides, I get an awkward feeling from her and that boy." Wesker said in his regular, unemotional voice. "For now, Krauser, I want you to get rid of that red-headed nuisance. She's been bothering me for six years now."

"Heh, leave it to me comrade." Krauser said, apparently taking pleasure in the thought of killing someone.

"Make sure she's alone. She'll be easier to kill that way." Wesker said before disappearing into the dark, Ada vanishing as well moments later.

"Looks like I get to have some fun." Krauser said, staring at his sheath knife before walking away to go hunt his new prey.

In the meantime, Travis had caught up to the two girls. Vee had stopped by the castle gates behind which they would soon meet Salazar, pacing back and forth and rubbing her arms to warm up, while Ashley leaned against a wall as far from Vee as she could possibly get, tapping her fingers against the stone impatiently.

Travis watched Vee walk back and forth for a while before he finally, went over to her and spoke quietly enough that Ashley wouldn't be able to hear.

"So… That's why you've been so secretive lately?"

She gave him a nod. "I had to be."

"Is there anything else I should know?" he asked, and she stopped in her tracks, heaving a deep sigh.

"Actually, yes," she said calmly, "HUNK is here, and there's some talk of us going back to Rockfort."

Before Travis could even respond, Vee tried to reassure him. "Don't worry about it, though. He's not doing anything… yet, anyway. It'll be fine, trust me."

"You seem confident enough," he replied. Although she seemed sufficiently secure with that knowledge, Travis wasn't totally convinced. At this point, he was just hoping that this wasn't all going to get out of hand… As if it wasn't beginning to already.

Leon and Claire had managed to kill off all but one of the ganados except one, whom seemed to have something white and centipede-like coming out of its mouth. It had been standing by the door aimlessly until they had killed all the others, and it now was slowly making its way towards them.

"What the hell is that white thing?" Claire asked, watching the ganado intently.

"If I knew," Leon responded, "Don't you think I would have killed it by now?"

They were running a little low on ammo at this point, and needing to conserve as much as possible, Leon decided to take a different approach to this problem. He dug around in his attaché case for and pulled out a flash grenade. When it went off, the odd white creature shrieked in a manner reminiscent of a spider being thrown in a fire, and the ganado disintegrated.

"I knew that would come in handy," Leon said, starting to look through the things left about the room.

Claire followed in turn, and they both gathered things without a word, until she broke the silence. "I can't believe Vee would do that…"

Leon didn't know exactly how to respond. He was still having a hard time totally grasping the situation, least of which what to do or say about it. "Neither can I."

"You don't think it was… deliberate, do you?" she asked, and when Leon didn't reply, she decided it was probably better to leave him alone for the time being. When he finally began to head for the door, without any indication to her that he was leaving, she quickly followed after him, back to the locked castle gate where the other three were waiting.

"Anything?" Leon asked, glancing around briefly.

"No," Travis, who had been quietly conversing with Vee a little ways away, replied.

Leon looked over at Claire. "Vee, we need to have a little chat with you."

Vee walked over to them quietly, her eyes straying to the landscape watchfully as she addressed them in as casual a tone as she could muster. "Yeah?"

"This whole time you've been going off on your own, was it to meet up with Wesker?"

She simply nodded.

"What were you doing?"

"Nothing really… He kept telling me he had something for me to do, but he didn't say what. And he didn't tell me why he was here, either, if you're going to ask."

"Why didn't you tell Leon this was going on?" Claire questioned, and Vee took on a slightly defensive tone.

"What do you think? He said he'd kill me if I did."

"That's exactly why you should have told me in the first place," Leon said critically, "Your lack of judgment is surprising."

"You know what? I don't want to listen to this anymore. I said I was sorry, and that's that," Vee said, turning and walking off in a huff.

"I take you both into my home, and take care of you the best I can and this is the thanks I get!" Leon shouted, but she pretended to ignore him.

Knowing that that was the end of the argument for now, he went to the gate, and unlocked it, throwing the doors open just a little harder than he intended.

The group entered the castle unceremoniously, to the sound of a rather weird laugh that echoed softly in the room. As they headed for the stairs, it wasn't long before Salazar and his two Verdugos made an entrance. "Welcome to my castle, Mister Kennedy."

They all glanced up to the overhead balcony, to where the vertically challenged castellan smiled down at them.

"Who are you?" Leon asked tetchily, still rather upset from before.

"Me llamo Ramon Salazar," he began, and went on to discuss several things, but the discontented Leon didn't pay any attention to it. His mind was in another place and time altogether.

He snapped out of it when a wall came down just beyond the stairs, blocking that passage. By this time, Salazar and his lackeys had left, which caught Leon off-guard when he realized just how deep in thought he had been.

"Guess we're not going that way," Claire said, coming back down the stairs, and taking a quick look around. "Let's see what's through that door over there, eh, Leon?"

"Uh, what?" he asked, still bemused by the lapse in time that occurred while he was thinking.

"That room, over there," she pointed to a nearby door. "The other three already went in."

The room above the prison was singularly empty at the moment, so Vee had convinced Ashley to go over by the fire-breathing horses to get the key from the painting with a promise of leaving her alone for a while longer, while she and Travis sat and peered down into the cell beneath, at the Garrador.

"I feel like I'm in 'The Man in the Iron Mask'," she said, indicating the virtually blind creature who stood chained to the wall in wait for its prey. "Except we're not exactly the Three Musketeers…"

Travis nodded in agreement, pondering over their situation while she talked about the likeliness of a Garrador ever being the ruler of France. As he was thinking back to the earlier incident outside of the gates, he turned to Vee and asked a question that had crossed his mind a few times.

"Vee, do you have any idea what Claire meant when she said you were lucky Wesker didn't recognize you?"

She thought for a moment, and then shook her head. "No idea whatsoever. You think it has something to do with why we live with Leon?"

"It could," Travis shrugged. "When we were in Pueblo, I bumped into Ada, and she said something about us being 'charity cases'… How would we find out what everyone's talking about?"

"I'll try to drag it out of Ada if I can get a hold of her…" Vee said plainly, leaning forward against the back of her chair, and resting her chin on her folded arms as she seriously observed the motionless creature.

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_Well, that's all for this chapter. See you next time, and let us know what you think!_


	12. Did You Know?

None of me rambling for five seconds this chapter – instead, Nonliving-Nightmare and I would like to wish you all (for those of you to whom it applies) a happy Halloween! And thanks for the reviews – without them, we have no idea what the heck we're doing.

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Chapter Twelve: Did You Know…?

"What?" Travis asked, a tired daze washing over his face. "Are you crazy!? Leon will be ticked if you see Ada especially after what happened with Wesker!"

"Calm down. She'll show up soon enough. Remember the area of the game where the free rocket launcher is? Well, if the plot hasn't changed any, she'll still show up there. All we have to do is get the drop on her without Leon or Claire knowing."

"First off, what do you mean by 'we' and secondly, what about Ashley?"

"Just trust me." Vee simply said, peering down at the chained figure. She and Travis were watching as Leon edged ever closer to the figure while Claire had her gun pointed at the wolverine look-a-likes' head, ready to fire if it even breathed wrong.

"Do you think they'll be okay?" Travis asked, knowing that this poor thing was capable of taking off both Leon's and Claire's head with one quick swipe.

"Would you rather be the one down there?" Vee asked, sarcastically.

"Uh no that's fine. Let's let the pro's handle this." Travis said with a small laugh that caused Vee to also laugh as well but only to get strange looks from Ashley, who had been sitting in a corner all alone.

"Sometimes, I wish we could just hang her out a window by her hair and let the crows peck her to death." Vee said, rolling her eyes at her and then running her finger across her throat, causing Ashley to gasp a little.

"I thought you said you'd leave her alone if she got the key?"

"She started it, and besides it's fun. You should try it sometime." Vee told Travis silently.

The two were so busy laughing, they didn't notice the steel bar flying towards them until it almost hit them.

"Move!" Travis yelled, pulling both Vee and himself out of their seats and onto the ground in a roll. The steel bar ended up crashing into the wall behind them.

"What the heck is going on down there!" Vee yelled, as she ran over to the side and looked down, only to see the garrador peering up at her with it's sewn eye sockets.

"This can't be good." She said, as she watched the thing jump up and crash through the side railing which knocked her backwards.

"Vee, are you okay?" Travis asked with genuine concern, ignoring the clawed monster in front of him.

"Yea, I'm fine." Vee said, pulling herself up. The two were greeted with huge claws only inches away from their face.

Vee pulled at Travis's shirt, motioning him to move backwards. The two were moving inches away at a time but a squeal from behind them alerted the monster, who readied itself to charge. Travis and Vee jumped out of the way as the garrador ran past them, ramming it's claws into the wall. Vee and Travis both looked behind them and noticed that the garrador had missed Ashley's head by mere inches. The creature finally freed its claw from the wall and prepared to strike once more. Two simultaneous shots pierced the parasite on the back of the garrador.

"Took you long enough, Leon." Travis said as he folded his arms and concentrated on the stiff blonde girl. "Will she be okay?"

"She'll be fine." Claire said, pulling off her jacket and walking up to the girl. She then placed her jacket over Ashley's shoulder.

"Can you say cliché?" Vee mumbled to herself.

"We should get moving. There's no telling what else is lurking around this place." Leon said in his monotonous, stern tone.

"Right, but I have some things to take care of, so I have to leave for a bit but I'll be back as soon as I can." Claire said with delight, her cheerful voice filling the rest with happiness.

"Alright but be careful." Leon said, smiling at her serenely as if they weren't trapped in this death-ridden place.

"I will. There's no way I'd let those things kill me. They aren't even worthy of looking at me!" She replied with humor, before going through the door from which they had entered.

Travis and Vee exchanged odd looks until Leon turned to them and spoke, the tone of his voice slightly more uplifted sounding than before. "Let's see where we end up."

The two began to follow him towards the now idle horse-head statues, Vee pausing for a moment next to Ashley, who was still looking in the direction of the deceased Garrador in a semi-catatonic manner. "Now's not the time for a mental breakdown."

Ashley just gave her a dirty look, falling into step behind them.

When they entered the next room, there was no large group of cultists waiting for them, led by one of the guys in red. They looked around, observing the stairwell that needed to be lowered in order to progress… That for some odd reason, was already lowered.

"Looks like someone might have gotten here before us," Travis whispered to Vee, who just nodded.

As soon as he'd uttered those words, the door they had just come through swung open abruptly, and Luis stumbled in. "Aha, I finally found you. I would've dropped in sooner, but I got a little… sidetracked. I know three of you are carrying plagas, so I brought you some... Uh-oh. I must have dropped it…" Luis trailed off, feeling his pockets for something.

"What are you talking about?" Leon asked, beginning to wonder what was up with this guy.

"Look, have you been coughing up blood?"

"Yeah," Leon replied, looking over at Travis who shook his head slightly.

"Not yet."

"Uh-huh," Ashley said after a moment of unwillingness.

"That means the eggs are starting to hatch – I have to go back and find it fast." Before they could question him further, Luis ran back through the door without another word.

"Looks like the path is clear from here," Leon said after a little while, glancing around the large room for any anomalous signs. "Let's move."

They started across the room, observing the dark pools of water that lined the walls with the same amount of interest as a Hell's Angel watching "Bob the Builder".

"This is seriously boring," Vee said suddenly, breaking the relative silence in an attempt to take their minds off of the issue at hand. "Want to play a game of 'Did You Know', Travis?"

"What's 'Did You Know'?" he asked.

"It's a great way to occupy yourself, for sure. You ask questions back and forth until one of you can't think of anymore. Like, did you know… that Walter Freeman is the father of the ice pick lobotomy?"

Ashley shuddered at hearing this.

Travis considered the idea of playing the game for a moment, and seeing as he'd prefer to think of something other than becoming a ganado, he gave it a try. "Um… Did you know that the human spine is made up of seven cervical, twelve thoracic and five lumbar vertebrae on average?"

"That's a good one," she replied with a laugh, "Let me think…"

They climbed the stairs, and not entirely to the two teenagers surprise given the plot changes, the platforms had already been raised from the water. It was a little unsettling, since they had no idea what would happen after they left this room, but they were sure everything would be okay. For the most part.

"Only way across," Leon said, going to the end of the floor and jumping onto the first of the platforms without any hesitation. When Ashley and Travis had crossed, Vee followed gingerly, finally formulating a question.

"Did you know that in Haiti, a zombie is someone who was poisoned with a powder made from blowfish, buried alive for a short time and then forced into slavery by the person who poisoned them?"

"I wish that's all they were," Leon murmured dismally, thinking back to Raccoon City momentarily.

There was complete silence as they crossed the last of the platforms and passed through the door into the next room unceremoniously. As they continued to walk straight ahead, Ashley stopped, coughing hard.

"Are you alright?" Leon asked, and she shoved him away from her, just to run to the end of the hall, get trapped and re-abducted.

"How surprising," Vee said, receiving a slightly disconcerting look from Leon.

"Don't start," he warned, heading for the door to the dungeon. "We've got to find her before something bad happens."

The dungeon was quiet, except for the sound of dripping water somewhere nearby. Leon walked ahead of them, oblivious to what lurked down there. Making a few turns, they entered the main part of the dungeon, where the walls were lined with cells and the limited light from an opening in the ceiling cast an eerie aura over everything. It was still ominously calm, as he walked to where the room ended at a flooded exit, Travis following close behind in the event something happened. Vee, on the other hand, lingered near the first of the cells on the left side of the room, by the path that led to the control room. She was studying something inside the chamber curiously, as she reached out a hand to open the door. There was a trilling sound somewhere close by, and she stopped in her tracks, looking slowly up to the ceiling where a pair of yellow eyes were peering down at her.

"Oh fuck!" she said, stepping back just in time to miss being completely drenched in acid by the Novistador, but to have some of it splatter on her arm. Doing what most (okay, maybe only some) human beings would do if acid got on them, she ran around in a circle temporarily, shouting 'what did I learn in first aid?!' and since that wasn't doing anything, then made her way quickly over to the water and started dousing it on her arm.

The Novistador dropped down onto the floor and disappeared, but its trail was visible in the thin layer of water that hadn't permeated the stone floor. Leon watched it carefully, tracing its path in the air with his drawn gun. It started to come towards them, but before he could pull the trigger, a shot rang out from somewhere nearby, knocking the creature dead. When it had disintegrated, Chris Redfield stuck his head around the corner and looked the three over briefly. "Is everything okay?"

"Acid seriously hurts!" Vee said, hopping from one foot to another in a way vaguely reminiscent of a drunk trying to do "Flash Dance", while frenetically spraying her arm with the first aid spray she'd received from Rebecca a while back.

"Who's there?" someone asked, and Chris was joined by Barry.

"There are other people here?" he said, and Chris nodded.

"Other people?" came another voice, and they were further joined by Jill and Rebecca.

"Hey, you're those two that were on the plane!" Jill said, only to get an immediate response of 'it's still burning!' from Vee.

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Well, Chris, Barry, Jill and Rebecca finally came into the actual story, rather than just passing through again. This should be the beginning of their sub-plot, if we do this thing correctly.

Anyway, leave us a review and let us know what you thought!


	13. Predicament

Well, yet another chapter… Sorry for the lack of length with this one, but we've been kind of bust lately, Nonliving-Nightmare with his school work and me trying to get ready for Thanksgiving… It should be longer next time, assuming everything quiets down a bit.

_Either way, hope this chapter will suffice for now, and happy holidays!_

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Chapter 13: Predicament

Travis just glimpsed over at Vee and just shook his head out of frustration and let out a sigh. Vee, who seemed to notice this, stopped shouting and hopping around.

"What was that sigh for?" She asked rather grumpily.

"It's nothing. Wasn't your hand burning?"

"Oh right. Ouch, my hand!" Vee yelled, resuming her charades that vaguely resembled the flying monkeys from _The Wizard of Oz_.

"Here, let me take a look." Rebecca said, still maintaining an innocent sounding voice six years later. She pulled out some ointment and tended to the wound, bandaging Vee's hand up afterwards.

"Thanks Becky. At least someone cares." Vee said with a hyper tone, sticking her tongue out at Travis when his back was turned.

"What are the ex-S.T.A.R.S members doing in a remote place like this?" Leon asked, checking and reloading his guns.

"What? We can't come and visit an old friend?" Chris asked, giving Leon a small smirk.

"Let me guess. You're looking for Claire?"

"Huh, you've gotten sharper since joining the U.S. government. Claire left on her own accord when she found out Wesker was in the vicinity." Chris said, losing all humor that is usually in the marksman's voice.

"Besides the fact that Claire is Chris's brother, she has vital information on an abandoned Umbrella laboratory. Once she heard about Wesker, she left right away without reporting back to us." Jill explained, noting that Travis was staring at her. "Um is there something on my face."

"Huh? Oh no, I just found that information interesting." Travis said. "I just stare at random things when I'm contemplating things."

"Yea, he's weird like that Jill. Just ignore him." Vee said, popping up beside him.

"Be quiet!" Barry interrupted. "Listen."

Tapping echoed from the corridors. Multiple glowing eyes of blue, red, and green illuminated from the dark.

"We've got guests!" Chris yelled as everyone clenched their weapons, readying to fire at the first awkward shimmer in the light.

Meanwhile, in a different part of the Castle:

Claire was outside where Luis had originally stopped Leon and Ashley. She had been searching desperately for Wesker when a sudden chill went down her spine. She let her instincts take control as she quickly turned and fell to the ground as an arrow whipped by, where her head had been a second earlier.

"Heh, I thought you'd be an easy target to get rid of." Jack Krauser said rather disappointingly.

Claire just laughed as she stood up and dusted herself off.

"It takes more than a pea-brained moron like you to kill me. I mean, come on, what are you going to do? Hope your rock-hard abs distract me? Sorry, but I don't fall for clowns like you!" Claire said with a snap. "I bet your brains are as minuscule as your cajones."

"You're going to regret that." Krauser growled, lunging at Claire with his small blade.

Claire, eagerly awaiting this attack, quickly dodged and retaliated with a kick to the face.

"I thought you'd be a little faster. Guess I was wrong." Claire mocked, infuriating Krauser even more.

"Die!" He yelled, charging her once more only to get the same result.

Becoming desperate, Wesker took out a grenade and threw it at Claire, the grenade landing at her feet.

"Oh great. Thanks for playing fair!" She yelled, quickly surveying the area and deciding the best thing she could do would be to jump. As she jumped, the grenade exploded, sending shrapnel everywhere, some hitting her in the left shoulder. She grasped at her shoulder as she hit the water below. Struggling, she managed to make her way towards land. She struggled to stay awake but the combination of blood loss, coldness, and pain got the better of her.

Ada looked at the sky idly; she had time on her hands, and nothing to do with it. She was supposed to be working at getting a hold of the plagas, but since Wesker wasn't around, it seemed like a good time to take a short break. She walked casually along the edge of a castle wall, looking out over the darkened scenery until her eyes met with an unlikely sight.

The Redfield girl, soaking in a pool of her own blood, lay only a few feet from the waters edge below. She looked at her for a while, trying to discern from that distance if she was still breathing or not. When Ada was sure that she was in fact breathing, although very shallowly, she jumped down to get a better look.

Upon closer examination, she found the Claire's shoulder was a bit torn up, and blood still oozed from the wound though much of it had started to congeal in the slightly chilled air. She was deeply unconscious, and from the looks of it she had lost more than 2 quarts of blood. If she didn't get help soon, she ran the risk of dying.

Though Ada preferred to be on the slightly aloof side, she couldn't help but feel sorry for her on some level.

She happened to have a green herb on her that she didn't think she'd be needing anytime soon, so she ran it over Claire's wound a few times, thinking that that might be enough to hold off any infection, for a while at least. She would need to rest for a while before her body would be able to replenish its blood supply, but there were very few safe places in the castle… and if Ada left her there, she would probably go further into shock and die. As much as she really didn't want to admit it, Ada had a bit of a predicament.

Without much further thought on the subject, she carefully lifted Claire up, and went off to find a place to leave her, where she had a better chance of survival and her friends might find her.

Meanwhile…

Wesker was fairly confident that he wouldn't have to worry about Claire anymore; that is, unless she survived. But the odds of that were low. Either way, he had other matters on his mind right now.

Aside from formulating an exact plan for getting rid of Krauser once he had served his purpose, something was bugging him just slightly… He still didn't understand why he got a weird feeling from those two kids. It was like he knew them from somewhere… Quite some time ago… But where exactly?

The answer to that question wasn't a pressing concern, but it was getting on the rather annoying side.

If it was a while ago, they would have been considerably younger, and he hadn't met very many younger people in several years. For that matter, the last he'd remembered meeting were the children of… But that couldn't be them, could it?

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_You know, I still can't remember how to treat acid burns… For some reason, all I can think of is shock…_

_Well, anyway, leave us a review and tell us what you thought! Reviews make us super-happy. :)_


	14. Songbird

_Sorry for the huge delay in updating, everybody. We've been on the busy side lately, and kind of put it off for a bit. Bad excuse, but everyone does stuff like that, right? I personally have been putting everything off lately… But I have had time to do other things I haven't done in forever. Except for calling that guy who wanted to schedule an appointment to fix my computer… Well, I'll get back to that sooner or later. Unless my idea works. Otherwise, I don't think my computer can get much worse, maybe just a lot more annoying and ornery. At least it doesn't keep me from typing._

_Anyway, this chapter just kinda moves the plot along a little more, you get the picture. And the title was all I could think of right now._

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Chapter 14: Songbird

In the interim…

"Why would someone want giant bugs that spit acid?" Chris said, kicking the last of the Novistadors in the face, and then blowing its brains out.

"Where's your head at? Where's your head at, where's your head at-at-at-at? _Dododo_, _dododo_…" Vee was singing somewhere nearby.

"That's like asking why anyone would want to create a licker," Jill replied, stepping back from its corpse as it disintegrated.

"…Don't let the walls cave in on you. We can't evolve without you…"

"Who knows? The guy who lives here is pretty weird himself," Travis commented, looking briefly over at Vee who was doing a very random dance next to the water, nearly oblivious to anything other than her music.

"Where's your head at? Where's your head at, where's your head at-at-at-at? Where's it at?"

"You mean that really short guy?" Leon asked, reloading his gun.

"Salazaar," Travis responded as he went about picking up various Novistador eyes that were lying around.

"You have now found yourself trapped in the incomprehensible maze. Where's your head at? Where's your head at?"

"Is there anything on that CD that isn't so repetitive?" Barry asked loudly, and Vee paused her dancing and shrugged.

"Well, I could always sing a little of every song."

"So, where do we go now?" Rebecca questioned in a quiet tone, looking around the dungeon.

"Well, there's a door under the water. But we need to drain it first," Leon said, "And I'd assume that room over there might be the ticket."

"I'll go. You guys just stay here," Chris said, jogging around the corner and out of sight.

"Hey, Leon. Do you think Claire's okay?" Jill whispered, and he nodded.

"She's probably fine."

"…Maybe that's why, every little thing I do never seems enough for you. You turned the world away from you. Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball. Don't waste your time on me, you're already a voice inside my head. Keep holding on, just stay strong. Come on, come on, do what you want; what could go wrong? If the law don't get her, then I will, four little diamonds…"

"Okay, that's enough," Barry said, shaking his head.

"…Why can't we seem to keep it together? You can run, you can hide, but you can't escape my love. You begin to wonder why you came…"

"That's exactly what I'm doing," he muttered.

"…Rebel of the cause… AaaaaaaaaaaAAAH!"

"Knock it off!" Barry said loudly, and Vee gave him a funny look.

"Was my Led Zeppelin impression that bad?"

"I think you're creeping him out. You're definitely creeping me out," Travis said, and she smiled.

"I live to creep people out."

"Can you sing something less weird for a while?" Leon asked seriously and she looked at the ceiling thoughtfully.

"Maybe."

Chris came back around the corner, the water they stood next to draining steadily. "Look what I found in there," he said holding up the butterfly lamp. "Odd place to leave something like this. Here, you hang onto it, Leon."

Leon stuffed it into his attaché case, walking to the end of the ledge. "The water's drained. We better get a move on before more of those things come along."

"…Hey, Miss Murder can I? Hey, Miss Murder can I make beauty stay if I take my life?"

They all exchanged strange looks.

"What? I think it's catchy," Vee explained, walking to the end of the ledge and carefully hopping down.

Meanwhile:

Wesker was rather disappointed with Krauser's inability to deal with one simple girl, but considering she was a Redfield, he felt generous enough to let Krauser off the hook, after all, she was of no concern of his now. A smug smile of pleasure crossed his face.

"Maybe this is a sign that things are going to turn better." He chuckled, examining his killer7. "This should be able to squash those overgrown bugs."

Wesker felt a sudden vibration coming from his pocket. "What do you want? Have you gotten any leads to where the sample might be?" He asked, as he answered his communicator.

"Not yet. I had a 'package' to drop off." Ada responded, looking over at the Redfield girl, who was still losing blood quite drastically.

"Find Sera and get the sample."

"Yes, dear." Ada mocked sarcastically, as she ended the transmission with Wesker. "Sorry girl, but you are no longer my problem. Maybe your friends will find you soon enough."

Back with Leon and the others:

"Giant pendulums. You have to be joking!? Do they always have to put instant death traps in these places?" Barry yelled angrily.

"You'd be surprised what weird schemes people could come up with, especially when they are bored. I once thought about having a floor that would open up to reveal a pool of lava." Travis mused aloud, only to receive strange looks from everyone in the group except for Vee.

"I'll have to remember to talk to you about your deranged mind, but for now we need to worry about getting pass these flying axes" Leon stated, patting Travis on the shoulder.

"Haha, you get to have a talk with Leon." Vee whispered enthusiastically to Travis.

"I hate this place."

"I was only joking. Besides, we need to get moving." Vee said, seriously before taking Travis by the arm and they both ran pass the first blade."

"Are you insane!?" Travis asked, looking at the girl in shock. "We could have been killed!"

"Oh please, how many times have you actually played through this part of the game?

"That's not the point."

Leon and the rest jumped past the first pendulum before Vee and Travis could finish their argument.

"What were the two of you thinking?" Leon asked, scolding both of them.

"Just calm down. We are fine, aren't we?" Vee responded, standing at the edge of the gap, watching the pendulum in front of her swing back and forth. "Hm, seems easy enough."

"Don't even think..." Leon started, but Vee had already jumped across the gap before he could finish.

"What am I going to do with her? She is going to get us killed." Travis mumbled, allowing for the pendulum to swing a few times so he could judge when he needed to jump. Before he could, however, Jill grabbed the back of his collar and pulled him away from the edge.

"Ladies first." She giggled.

After avoiding several more pendulums, the group emerges on the higher level of the area where they had come from in the first place. Several members of the Los Illuminados were on the lower floor, doing what appeared to be praying after some sort of sacrifice.

"What do we do about them?" Rebecca asked silently as she watched the red-robed monk hold out his arms.

"I have an idea!" Vee said, smiling deviously as she fumbled through Leon's attaché case. She pulled out a hand grenade and waved it around excitedly.

"This is not going to end well." Travis mumbled, sighing out of frustration.

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_Well, that's the end of that chapter. Short and sweet, but it'll lengthen up further into the story, probably. It's getting there, we're just in a slump right now… And I've become addicted to watching Ugly Betty and Comedy Central…_

_Anyway, the next chapter should be a tad more interesting. There will probably be a lot more going on in that one. I'm working on the first half of it right now._

_So, if you've been reading, leave us a review and tell us what you thought. Feedback is never a bad thing._


	15. This is Like a Biography

_Well, here we are once again… With a really long chapter, this time. Lots of things happen in this, so drink lots of caffeine to wake yourselves up, because there's a lot to take in! _

_Oh… And I know the title is sort of retarded, but I heard someone say 'biography' as they walked by, and hence I had a title…_

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Chapter 15: This is Like a Biography

"What are you doing?!" Leon asked in a troubled tone.

"Travis, distract them for a minute," Vee said quietly, giving him a slight shove close to the edge.

"Hey, watch what you're doing!" he yelled subconsciously, and received an answer of humming from below.

The cluster of monks looked up at him cautiously. They apparently couldn't see the rest of the group standing further back from the edge, since they didn't make a move to escape. Instead, they stood there, probably trying to gauge whether or not he was a threat… And what to do about it.

"Uh… What am I supposed to do now?" he whispered sharply at Vee who was slowly making her way towards the other end.

"Try humming at them," she replied, stopping briefly when a couple of them suddenly looked towards where she was tiptoeing along.

"Hmm?" Travis hummed, and the monks collectively gave him dirty looks.

"Hmmmmmmmm," they replied in a nasty tenor.

"Hmm?"

"Hmmmmmmmm."

"What does 'hmm' even mean?"

There was suddenly something of a loud ping, and a grenade landed right in the middle of the monks, who just looked at it. Nothing happened.

"Oops, guess I forgot to pull the pin," Vee said nearby.

The red-cloaked leader picked it up, studying it curiously before chucking it back up at Vee.

"Thank you!" she called sarcastically, pulling the pin and throwing it back down.

The leader quickly picked it back up and threw it, this time right at Travis, who happened to catch it.

"Oh crap!" he shouted, tossing it.

The grenade hit an upside-down statue, exploding. The statue began to crumble, and its head broke off crushing the skull-wearing monk that had been unlucky enough to be under it. The other monks started for the exit, now leaderless. Piece by piece, it fell apart, until finally what was left of the statues massive body detached from the ceiling and shattered completely as the other monks made their escape and a solid wall blocked the route.

No one said anything, until…

"Huzzah! Ding-dong the witch is dead! You dropped a statue on his head!" Vee said happily.

"Never again," Leon muttered loud enough for them to hear. "That was too close for comfort."

"I completely agree," Travis replied, wiping his brow with the back of his arm.

"How do we get out of here?" Chris asked, looking down at the floor.

"Well, there's a lever over there, but the only way over appears to be by chandelier," Rebecca observed quietly.

"Okay then, who's going over there?" Barry questioned.

No one said anything. They just stared at each other.

"Whatever, I'm going to wait down there," Vee said, hopping off of the ledge. "Travis?"

"Coming," he called, thinking it would be best to get out of the way while they decided who was doing what. He jumped down carefully and joined her near the altar.

"I can't tell if that's an organ or a slab of… something," she said turning away from the bloody mass on the table and lowering her voice. "What are we going to do?"

"About what?"

"The spot where we're going to catch up to Ada isn't that far away now. We can't talk to her with them around," she replied, motioning to their companions on the ledge who were still in disagreement.

"Well, what should we do about it? Sneak off when they're not paying attention?"

"That's pretty much all we can do."

"Do you know how upset he'll get if we go off alone?"

"Yeah, so?"

Travis sighed. "Okay, what do you have in mind?"

"Nothing actually. We'll have to come up with something as we go along."

There was the sound of glass tinkling nearby and they looked up to see Barry trying to gain his balance on the chandelier. They exchanged shrugs and headed for the stairs.

Several minutes later…

Vee and Travis leaned against the wall on the lower floor, watching the group chase another red-robed skullhead around the next room with mild amusement. They had taken out everyone except that one guy who was about as fast as an Olympic runner. Just when they went to jump him, he managed to dodge and run off in the opposite direction again.

Vee had gotten bored after the first five minutes of this and was reciting dialogues from a show she had described as having a very small fan base. Travis didn't pay it any mind.

"I have read all these books and they are good books. Out of all these books, I would say that they are all these my favorite. Hi, and hi to you. Leave us alone, we're reading. But all these books are the same. They're all titled 'Rules'. So? So, I mean, are you reading 'Rules' or 'Rules'? And if you've read one, don't you sorta already know what the other one's about?"

"How long have they been at this?" Travis asked, as Leon tripped over a chair.

"Don't know… Golden? No way. Way. Curds and whey."

"How hard could it be for five people to catch one guy?"

Vee shrugged, continuing her quotations. "So it'll all end in flame. You know. Hot-heaty-hot."

They watched as the skullhead started to get desperate and began throwing furniture at his pursuers.

"My blood has turned to booze, and I want my face to turn to booze. If my blood could drink my face then we'd be alright."

Travis raised an eyebrow at her, but decided not to go into that. "You think we should give them a hand?"

"Shh, I'm making it happen."

"Is that your answer, or a quote?"

"Quote," Vee said, smiling.

"We just want the key!" Chris shouted at the monk, getting frustrated.

"He probably doesn't even know what you just said," Jill said as they tried to corner the monk against the railing.

They closed in until the skullheaded guy was practically leaning over the railing… And then he suddenly fell over. There was a loud SNAP! as the monk landed on his head and his neck broke. They cringed collectively, looking over the railing.

"Well, that worked," Leon said.

Travis went over to the corpse, finding the gallery key and throwing it up to Leon. The two of them wandered back up to the second floor, rejoining their companions just as Leon unlocked the door.

The gallery room was ominously silent and carried with it a stale scent like the room hadn't been used in quite a while… And yet, to Vee and Travis' surprise, someone had already solved the painting conundrum and the door was wide open. The group cautiously headed through the door, keeping an eye out for anything unusual. But there was nothing. Not even any monks, like there was supposed to be.

"This is getting really creepy now," Vee whispered to Travis, "First Mendez, then the villagers outside of the castle, now this."

"Probably just another plot change."

They wandered along until they entered the next room, which was seemingly empty. And as they walked around a little, it remained empty. Where were all the killer monks that were supposed to be there? Normally, the room would have been a complete death trap, but now it was… just a room.

"Where is everyone?" Vee said quietly.

"You don't suppose they're all waiting around somewhere, waiting for us, do you?"

"Anything's possible," Vee said with a shudder. "That's something I won't look forward to."

The group approached the platform, which someone had already risen, but hadn't touched the blue box. The scene was surreal just in the fact that no one was around, but why would someone had bothered to raise the platform for no apparent reason?

Leon went over and opened the blue box, picking up the goat head decoration with a perplexed look. "A goat?"

"It looks like one of the heads of a chimera," Vee piped up, and when she received weird look, added, "Some weird monster with a lion head, a goat head and a dragon head… usually."

"Riiiiight," Leon said, putting it in his attaché case, and looking around for an exit. "There's a door over there. Odds are it's the way out."

They headed over to the door, and sure enough, it was already unlocked. Someone had passed through already.

They walked in silence, startling crows as they went, until they finally found themselves in the garden.

"Well, this place is nice," Jill said thoughtfully.

At the comment, Leon's radio buzzed to life. It was Salazaar, not surprisingly.

"Ahh, Mr. Kennedy. I see you've made it to the garden. Lovely, isn't it?" he laughed for no particular reason. "There is just one thing you didn't count on. You and your friends have just wandered into the home of my pets. And I'm sure that they'll enjoy making you their next meal."

With that, the transmission ended.

Leon looked around, laying eyes on the doors that led out of the garden. "Looks like we need to search for something that fits in this weird indentation. You two stay here. And take this just in case," he said, handing Travis the shotgun. "We'll be right back. Come on."

He motioned for the others to follow him, and they descended into the maze while Vee and Travis stayed behind.

The two watched as they split up and went in different directions, eventually disappearing behind tall hedges. After a few moments, they heard the characteristic barking of the colmillos and gunshots from various corners of the labyrinth.

"How are we going to get away from them long enough to confront Ada?" Travis asked suddenly, "We're almost there, you know."

Vee didn't reply right away, tapping her fingers on the railing in thought. "Well… All I can think of is…" She took the shotgun from Travis, walking over to a window.

"What are you doing?" he asked, having an idea where this was going.

"We have to get in there before them somehow, right?" She looked off into the maze, making sure none of them were in viewing range and then she hit the window as hard as she could with the butt of the shotgun. After a couple more times, a large crack formed down the middle of the glass. "Jeez, why couldn't I just happen to have one of those things for breaking car windows?"

She hit it one more time, and the glass shattered, leaving large triangular pieces in the corners, which she took a moment to knock out.

"Let's go."

They climbed in through the window, into the master bedroom, which was now practically coated in glass. It was quiet as usual, except for the crunching of glass below their feet. No sign of anybody, except for the merchant standing in the next room.

"What are we going to do about the garrador that's coming up?" Travis asked, and Vee gave a contemplative nod as she began to walk towards the other room and he followed.

"Welcome, strangers," the merchant greeted with a slightly uneasy tone.

Vee moved past him without a word, opening the armoire and grabbing the bejeweled mirror.

"Look," she said to the merchant, "I'm sorry I punched you in the face before… I'll trade you this for a flash grenade, eh? Just keep the change."

The merchant laughed. "Thank you."

She took the grenade and turned to leave, but paused to look back at him. "When the guy we're traveling with comes in, don't tell him that you saw us."

The merchant nodded, and they left, heading for the furthest door. The main corridor where the dining area was set up was quiet as usual, and they wasted no time in going over to the counter where the bell sat. Travis dinged it, and the painting flipped around. Vee quickly shot the bottle of wine in the painting, and stood there, giving it a weird look.

"I still wonder how they did that."

Approaching the once-barred door, she handed Travis the shotgun, arming herself with the flash grenade. They walked in carefully, looking around alertly for any sign movement. As soon as they moved far enough into the middle of the room, the cage dropped from the ceiling, and so did the garrador. Vee ducked the initial attack, getting as close to the bars as she could to stay out of it's way, while Travis ran to the other side. The monks took up sides all around, egging the monster on as it tried to locate its two victims. It slowly made its way towards Travis, and seeing a window of opportunity when it was about to bump into him, Vee readied the grenade.

"I have swords for arms!" she said in a shrill voice, and the garrador immediately turned to charge. She released the grenade, and the flash killed everything in the room… except the garrador, who flailed around.

Travis took aim and shot it in the back until the parasite exploded in a waterfall of foul-smelling stuff and the garrador hit the ground dead.

"'I have swords for arms'?" he said quizzically, and Vee just smiled.

"I was thinking of _300_."

Travis shook his head, and shot the lock off the cage door. "I really hope she's in here."

They opened the door and entered, not seeing anything particularly unusual about the room, except that the platform to the other ledge was already raised.

"Hm. No cultists," Vee said quietly, looking over the edge of the ledge. "Ada? If you're in here, we need to talk to you. It's just me and Travis."

No response.

"Please?"

Ada peered around the wall that was gated off by the metal crosshatch. "Yes?"

The two of them ran across the platform, down the stairs, and hopped off the last ledge, meeting her next to the glass case. She looked at them indifferently.

"What do you know about us?" Vee asked.

"Why does it matter?" Ada responded, leaning against the case casually.

"We're kind of fuzzy on the details of the last, say, six years… Like that thing in psychology where you block out memories. What can you tell us?"

"Why can't you just ask Leon?"

"Why do you keep answering questions with questions?" Vee said, and Travis broke in before she could start an argument with the spy.

"What she meant to say is that we never get any answers. You're well informed, do you know anything?"

Ada glanced at the ceiling, something of a smirk gracing her features. "As a matter of fact, I do."

"Could you please tell us everything?" Travis asked politely, and she nodded.

"From what I recall, both your parents were Umbrella scientists…"

"Yikes," Vee muttered, covering her eyes with one hand and running it down her face.

Travis pretended not to be too surprised.

"They were working on a special project, to create a special kind of Hunter, or something. Before they finished working on it, they disappeared and were never found. Their research was never used because the only written part of it was lost, and the only other source was you two."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Vee asked.

"You don't remember?" Ada asked, and they both shook their heads. "Your parents made you each memorize half of the exact formula they used in their research, so that way without the other, no one would ever be able to use it."

"And what happened?" Travis inquired.

"Well, a while before Raccoon City was destroyed, your parents basically vanished off the face of the earth. Of course, Umbrella later investigated it, but never found any evidence as to what happened to them. You were lucky on the other hand, because you were found. And then Leon took you in because no one else would."

"But how did that all happen?" Vee asked, and they were startled by a voice nearby.

"Excuse me."

Ada was gone faster than a military official being questioned about Area 51.

"Damn it, you freakin' retard!! We were in the middle of an important conversation!" Vee snapped on impulse, turning to see who'd interrupted them. "Oh… snap…"

Standing at the brink of the ledge was someone they had never counted on encountering in this game.

"Would you happen to be the two that the Ashfords are looking for?" Nicholai Ginovaef asked, looking down at them unpleasantly.

"Uh… Maybe…" Vee said, completely taken aback that he was there.

"Good, at least we've established that. I trust you know by now why I'm here," he said, jumping down.

"Uh… Maybe…"

"Is that all you know how to say?"

"No… No. Not really."

"Then what are your names?"

"Travis."

"Vee."

"'Vee'?" he said, looking at her weird. "Do you sing a lot?"

"… Yeah…"

"You're that strange girl that followed me around singing irritating songs," he muttered, apparently not very pleased with the realization.

"Wait – we know each other?!?"

Before the conversation could go any farther, they were further interrupted.

"Nicholai??" came Jill's voice from the ledge, "I thought that creep was dead!"

The rest of the group had gathered just above them, at possibly the worst time ever.

"Ahh, your friends," Nicholai said, with a backward glance at Travis and Vee. "These two have - "

"No, don't say anything! Shut up, shut up! Observe radio silence!" Vee shouted at the Russian, who gave her a dirty look in response.

"What is going on?" Leon asked in a fairly nasty tone.

"I was sent as back up, to find these two," Nicholai said matter-of-factly.

"What is he talking about?"

"Remember when I said we got the money to come here by doing a Robin Hood?" Vee started calmly. "Well, we took a brief trip to, err…" She trailed off.

"You went _where_?"

"Rockfort," Travis added, "Where we found out Alfred and Alexia are still alive."

"And then we robbed them," Vee finished.

With that, Leon promptly fainted.

"Heh, guess that's my cue to hit the road." Nicholai chuckled, tossing a flash grenade.

The group were all temporarily blinded, hearing Nicholai yell "Suckers!" as he made his escape.

"I knew I should have shot down his helicopter in Raccoon City." Jill cringed as she sucker punched the air.

"Um, Jill. Would you please calm down and help me with Leon?" Rebecca asked, her voice a mere whisper.

"Oh. Of course. Sorry, I just can't stand that Nicholai! Oh, and what have I told you about being more confident and talking more, Rebecca? You're in your twenties now. You're not a child anymore.

"Would you shut up and get over here." Rebecca said angrily, her face a hot red.

"I don't even want to know what is going on with those two." Travis said to Vee, as he watched to two women bicker back and forth, as Leon lay there, motionless. "Do you think he'll be okay."

"It's Leon. There's no telling. He's been acting like a pansie lately."

"What? That's not true. You know he's just worried about us. Come on, he's basically our father. In this world at least.

"Whatever. The only reason we were living with him was because they were afraid we would fall into Umbrella's hands. Even if that wasn't the case, all we are to them are useless children." Vee said rather harshly.

"You can't mean that! Leon has been looking out for us ever since we got here."

"Why are you so worked up? It's not like we really belong here, anyway. We should just let our counterparts live however they want to. We just need to worry about getting out of this alive."

"Hm, it just feels wrong to take Leon's sincerity for granted. He may be just a video game character, and this may not even be our world, but come on. We need his help if we are to survive this and I think he really does care about us. We can at least try and make this easy for him." Travis explained to Vee.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I'll be waiting where Sera dies." Vee answered unemotionally, before walking off.

"What has gotten into her." Travis wondered, as Leon came to.

"What in your right mind made you think that going to Rockfort Island was the ideal plan to make money!" Leon shouted, as he struggled to gain his balance.

"I'm sorry, Leon. We just really wanted to help you. We didn't know it would cause you so much worry." Travis answered.

"Sometimes, I don't know what I'm going to do with the two of you. Why don't the two of you just listen!" Leon shouted out of frustration.

Travis just gave Leon a blank look.

"Maybe Vee was right after all." He murmured before running off to catch up with Vee.

"What just happened?" Chris asked, breaking the silence that had lingered after the youth had left.

"Nothing good." Leon sighed.

The group of S.T.A.R.S and Leon walked through the door that was across from where the merchant would have been to find Vee and Travis both in different areas of the room.

"She's down there." Travis said, pointing down toward the gap.

"What?" Leon asked, only to hear the words "Leon, help!" being yelled. "Ashley!"

"Woohoo, knight in bullet-proof vest to save the day." Vee mumbled to herself, sarcastically.

Leon , Chris, and Barry all rushed out to the platform. Leon carefully took aim with the rifle he had, firing three shots. One breaking off the bars that restrained the arms, another destroyed the midsection restraint, and the last destroyed the leg bar.

"About time, Leon." Ashley sighed happily, only to have multiple monks burst into the room. Leon, Chris, and Barry wiped out the monks fairly easily, while still protecting Ashley. After the small wave of monks, Ashley ran and grabbed the key that the red monk had dropped, and disappearing through the door.

"I give the blond two minutes before she's dead." Vee said to Travis, walking over to him.

"Heh, you must actually like her deep down inside. We both know she'll be dead in under 30 seconds." Travis said, forcing a smile.

"Yes, you are probably right. Hm, sorry about that whole Leon thing. It was just a lot of information to swallow at one time. Anyway, we should find Ada again and see if she can be of anymore assistance to us." Vee said, slapping Travis on the back.

"Geez, think you could hit a little harder?" Travis joked.

"Hm, is that an invitation?"

"No! Definitely not."

Meanwhile:

"Ada, where are you." Wesker asked, punching buttons on his communicator.

"Behind you." She called, as she appeared out of no where.

"How do you manage to do that? Never mind, now is not the time. What do you know about those kids?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Ada smiled, brushing back some of her hair.

"Don't play smart with me! You work for me and I know you have information about their identities!" Wesker yelled in rage, taking Ada by the throat and slamming her against the wall. "Now tell me or I'll crush your throat!"

"Heh, no you won't. You still need me. That is, if you want to get the las plagas sample."

"Don't be so sure but for now, I'll let you go, but I will find out." Wesker said, releasing Ada from his grasps. "Don't think you'll be able to use me. I'm not easily manipulated. If anything, you're the one who's my lapdog."

Wesker, having made his point, slowly strolled off.

"Hm, we'll see who the puppet is in the end, now won't we, Wesker?" Ada said, coughing a few times.

Back with the party:

"Leon! I'm so happy to see you!" Ashley screamed, as she ran and hugged Leon, then turned around to see Travis and Vee standing behind her. "Oh, it's you two. Whatever."

"Are you sure we can't just feed her to an Iron Maiden or something?" Vee whispered to Travis as if it were a normal conversation.

"No, I don't think Iron Maidens eat things that have lower IQ's than themselves." Travis replied, also in a whisper. "Hey, wasn't Luis supposed to die here?"

"Hm, you are right. That's odd. I wonder what happened to him." Vee pondered, recalling all of the recent plot changes.

"This is really starting to get freaky. I hope the plot hasn't changed too much. It could yield disastrous results." Travis answered, making sure none of the others were listening to them.

"I guess we'll just have to continue through this place with care." Vee said, as she walked toward the door, humming the song "Time of Your Life."

"What an appropriate song." Travis sighed as he followed after her, hoping that things haven't taken a turn for the worst.

---------------------------

_And there you have it – something of an explanation as to why we're with Leon. Man, it feels good to write a long chapter – probably because we didn't do that for so long…_

_Oh, and if there's any typos, etc. – I didn't have time today to do any editing, so this is sort of in raw format, if you will. _

_I'm a little short on words today, so I'll leave you with that. We'll probably be posting a new chapter in a little while, so, in the meantime, leave us a review, and let us know what you thought…_

_Otherwise, you'll die. No, I'm just kidding:)_


	16. Fighting

_Ahh, finally posting a new chapter. Sorry for the delay, but Travis and I have been rather busy since the last chapter – you know how it is. Anyway…_

_Be forewarned, there is a lot of arguing in this chapter – and some of it made me realize just how much of a bitch I can be if I get angry… But I'm usually pretty nice, even to people I don't like. My cousin, "Prickarella", for example. Now to the chapter…And the title is short and simple, because I couldn't think of anything else._

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Chapter Sixteen: Fighting

"I also know a song that's completely inappropriate for any situation, but the lyrics are kind of disgusting."

"Uh… I think I'll pass on that one."

She opened the door and let him enter first, then allowing the door to close behind her. "Well, we have maybe half a minute of peace before they – okay, never mind," Vee said rolling her eyes when the door creaked open. Ashley came in.

"Oh, great. What do you want?"

"You got in trouble," she taunted, and Vee just looked at her apathetically.

"Shut up, Blondie."

"Stop calling me that," Ashley said, taking on a nasty tone.

"Why? You remind me so much of Hitler's dog, it just seems fitting."

"I can't stand you!" she nearly screamed, "I wish you would get admitted to a mental hospital!"

"Whoa, don't even joke about that," Vee said quite seriously, and Ashley cocked her head like a confused dog.

"Does that scare you?"

"That's not any of your business," she replied bluntly.

"Ha! It does, doesn't it?"

"Why wouldn't it? The ethics in those places are extremely questionable. Besides, you're afraid of everything."

"No, I'm not."

"Oh, yeah? Name one thing that doesn't scare you."

"Uh…"

"Thought so," Vee said with a smile.

"I'm going to have you arrested," Ashley said matter-of-factly.

"Well, then I'm going to get elected President first – Travis, you can be my Vice President – and then I'll tell the Secret Service that you're a threat and have you taken out."

"Why am I suddenly involved in this?" Travis asked, not getting an answer.

"I'd like to see you try!"

"I'd like to see you grow a brain!"

"Why are you so mean?"

"Because you hit me over the head!"

"You were threatening me!"

"I wasn't serious! Do you know what sarcasm is, or do you just believe everything you hear?"

"I hate you," Ashley said coldly.

"Really? I don't hate you – I just never want to see you again."

The rest of the group entered the room suddenly, completely unnoticed by the two girls, who were still shouting back and forth at each other.

"Are they always like that?" Barry questioned.

"You don't know the half of it," Leon grumbled.

Vee was now screaming rap lyrics in Ashley's face. "Oh, you think you funny? You don't know me, money! It's about to get ugly! Guess you know what that means, come up off of that green! Fried rice over beans, don't make it a murder scene!"

"Only criminals listen to rap!"

"Rap is an expression of living life on the streets, you cultureless garbage!"

"GARBAGE?!"

"Yeah, that's right, GARBAGE!"

"Would you stop fighting!" Leon shouted.

"Shut the fuck up and stay out of this!" Vee screamed back at him.

"Would you keep an eye on them and make sure they don't kill each other?" Leon sighed in an aggravated tone to Chris, who nodded. "I'm going to go see what's in the room beyond that lava pit."

"We'll take care of them," Chris assured as Leon walked off.

"The quickest way to end this would be to separate them," Jill suggested.

"Why don't you guys take Ashley and see where the rail car goes? That'll give both of them some time to cool off."

"You sure you don't want some help?"

"Nah, I can handle a couple of teenagers."

With that, the three managed to pry the two girls apart, and took Ashley to do a little exploring… elsewhere.

"Hi," Chris said with a smile as he walked over to the two.

"Yeah, hidey-fucking-ho, neighbor," Vee muttered, before taking on a slightly more polite tone, "I didn't mean to say that, I'm just a little wound up."

"Well, now we have some time to talk, one-on-two."

"About what?" Travis asked, although he thought he probably already knew the answer.

"Anything you want to."

"How about nothing, then?" Vee asked, idly tapping her fingers on her arm.

"Oh, come on. There has to be something on your minds."

"When isn't there?" Travis joked.

"You know what I mean," Chris said pleasantly, "So, what's going on?"

"Things."

"Things that don't involve you," Vee added in as civil a tenor as she could muster.

"Hey, no need to be so distrustful. I'm your friend, remember?"

"There's just a lot going on," Travis explained.

"That much I gathered. It sounds like you've had quite the adventure."

"If you could call it that."

"Out of curiosity, who was Nicholai sent as back up for?"

"HUNK," Vee answered, stretching her arms over her head.

"Well, don't worry. As long as we're around, nothing's going to happen to you two. Going to Rockfort _was_ a terrible idea, though."

"We know," Travis said.

"But for a quote, 'how can you have a beautiful ending without beautiful mistakes?'" Vee added.

"Where'd you hear that one?" Chris asked.

"Fortune cookie."

"In any case, this is a pretty big mess."

"Don't start lecturing us," Vee said, "We've had enough of that this trip."

"That's because you've got Leon stressed out to the extremes," Chris replied gently, "Do you realize how hard it is to protect two kids that keep getting into trouble? The least you could do is cut him some slack and behave yourselves."

"Right," Vee said uninterestedly.

"He could be a little more understanding," Travis said, and Chris nodded.

"Try talking to him. I'm sure he'll get over it in no time."

Just as he finished saying that, a slightly charred Leon came out of the far room and made his way back over to them. "Where are the others?"

"I sent them on ahead to give the girls some time away from each other. Let's go join them, shall we?"

The four of them went down to the rail car that had mysteriously returned sometime during the earlier conversation, Leon seating himself next to Chris and staring at the wall, his expression noticeably foul.

"Are you okay, Leon?" Travis asked.

"Don't talk to me, either of you," he said gruffly, keeping his eyes on the wall. "Or I'll send you to live at the Dead Factory."

Travis and Vee exchanged uneasy looks.

The first rail car led them back to the mural of the chimera, where they expected to find their companions, but the area was oddly empty. Leon set the pieces of the chimera in place, and they continued on their way to the next rail car.

Meanwhile…

"So, what do you propose we do?" HUNK asked, leaning against the wall casually while Nicholai paced the room.

"I'm not going back to the island without those two kids," he answered sharply.

"Well, neither am I," HUNK retorted, crossing his arms. "You know what would happen."

"This operation isn't rocket science – it should be easy. They're just teenagers."

"With a lot of friends."

"Then we just need to get them alone."

"And how do we do that?"

"I think I have a plan," Nicholai said contemplatively.

In the meantime…

They arrived at their final destination in silence, getting out of the rail car and hearing faint discussion somewhere nearby. The four of them passed through a brief zigzag hallway that was practically wallpapered with paintings, entering a larger corridor where there were windows open, a breeze making the ghostly pale curtains flutter in the moonlight that streamed inside. At the end of the great hall, was the rest of the group having a casual conversation.

"But if Bob Barker killed someone he wouldn't be a super cool old guy anymore. He'd just be a creepy old guy with a weapon," Jill said.

"It wouldn't really be Bob Barker, though. It would be Bob Barker playing the part of a killer," Barry replied, "Can't you just picture him as Michael Myers or something?"

"No, I can't."

"Neither can I," Rebecca said quietly.

"And I thought I was weird," Vee murmured to Travis as they approached them.

"How did you get here?" Leon asked, "We had to come through that blocked passageway/fresco thing."

"We're not sure. We were wandering around and ended up in here somehow," Jill explained.

"So," Chris said, trying to figure out exactly how that was possible, "What are we doing here?"

"We need to find something to open the passage," Barry said.

"Okay. Should we split up or something?"

"It would get the job done faster," Jill said.

"Alright then," Chris said, thinking over what to do. "The only other rooms around here are back down the way we came. Why don't you guys take the room to the right, and we'll take the room to the left?"

"Sounds fair enough," Barry responded. "Let's get going."

The two groups headed back the way they came, splitting up and going in opposite directions when they passed back through the hall of paintings.

Leon, Chris, Travis and Vee went into the left room, finding themselves in the hallway lined by suits of armor. The two teens stayed in the nearest corner, perfectly aware of what was going to happen once somebody got near one of the medieval relics.

"Is something wrong?" Chris asked, glancing back at them as he walked towards the first of the Armaduras.

"Um, no," Travis replied, "We were just going to wait here until we're sure it's safe."

"Suit yourselves," Leon mumbled.

"And we have to talk to that?" Vee whispered, looking through her pockets for a cd.

"It's alive!" Chris said as one of the Armaduras made a move, hastily getting out of the way before it attacked and then collapsed into a pile of dust, just to get nearly beheaded by another.

Leon, in the meantime, dodged the last two quite gracefully, like there was nothing to it. "I think we've come to the end of the line," he said pointing to the room at the end of the hall.

They all headed into the room cautiously, looking around with vigilance for anything remotely out of the ordinary.

"This room seems a little too quiet." Leon approached the King's Grail slowly, seemingly aware that something was about to happen. He picked up the bejeweled goblet, and three Armaduras lumbered out of their hiding places with a clatter. "How surprising."

"Have any grenades?" Chris asked, and Leon dug around in his attaché case.

"Ten."

"That should be enough."

After several minutes of what added up to football with grenades and three more Armaduras, the living suits of armor had been defeated. The four of them headed back the way they came, Vee quietly singing the words to a Monty Python song rather happily.

As they were exiting, the door opposite them swung open, and their four companions came out.

"That room was a freakin' death trap," Barry said, trying to catch his breath. "Next time we're not splitting up…"

"Let's get out of here," Jill suggested and the group started towards the locked passage.

"Vee," Travis said, not getting a response.

"He's a lumberjack and he's okay. He sleeps all night and he works all day. I cut down trees, I wear high-heels…" Vee was in her own world, singing about Lumberjacks.

He poked her in the shoulder, and she pulled her headphones off. "Yeah?"

"You think maybe we should talk to Leon now?"

She tapped her chin in thought. "Now's as good a time as any, I guess."

"Hey, Leon," Travis called, and he looked back at him. "Can we talk to you for a minute?"

"Fine," he responded unenthusiastically. "Chris."

He tossed Chris the King's Grail, and then walked back to them while the others went about placing the goblets, still wearing a disagreeable expression.

Travis took a deep breath and then started. "We know we've caused a lot of problems, but we never meant to. We had good intentions, they just never came to fruition…"

"And now we're trying to pick up the pieces the best we can," Vee continued. "We'd like to start over on the right foot."

"We are really sorry for all the trouble."

Leon seemed relatively unmoved. "Do you even mean that?"

With that said, he turned and walked away without another word.

They remained silent for a moment.

"Wow, and we were questioning his sincerity…" Vee said, wiping the back of her arm across her eyes.

"Are you okay?" Travis questioned.

"It's just the music," she replied defensively.

Ashley, who had stayed in the hall after the others had gone into the next room, watched Leon pass by, evidently in a somewhat belligerent mood. When he had left the corridor, she approached the two teens.

"Are you crying?" she asked, eyeing Vee strangely.

"So what if I am? Do you want to fight about it?" she said, still wiping her eyes.

"Jeez, I was just asking a question," Ashley muttered, "Do you always have to be such so spiteful?"

"When you're around, yes. Why don't you mind your own business and leave me alone?"

"Well, maybe I will!" She stormed off.

"She is starting to remind me more and more of my dumb-blonde cousin 'Prickarella'… Except I haven't had to play annoying games with her and listen to her yap about how great she is."

The others had gone on ahead of them, looking around the short corridor before the area with the caved in floor. Travis and Vee entered the corridor just as they were entering the next room, and as soon as Ashley walked in, a Novistador carried her off.

"Well, that didn't take long. Bye-bye, Bimbo," Vee said.

Meanwhile:

Luis Sera couldn't remember which hallway led to where he needed to go. If he were to catch up with the others, he'd have to move fast. He knew that every second he waists, the parasite matures more within Leon, the loud blonde, and the kid.

He had always disliked this castle. It always gave him goose bumps and now he was lost inside it's halls.

"Damn it. Another dead end." Luis frowned, unsure of which hall he should take now. The castle was beginning to look more and more like a maze. Finally, after backtracking and finding a new path, Luis came to an open window, noticing droplets of blood on the ground. Readying his Red9, Luis slowly followed the blood trail. The trail continued inside a room. With his weapon raised, Luis kicked open the door and was shocked when he saw a red haired girl bleeding from a wound on her shoulder.

"Hey!" He yelled, rushing over to the still unconscious girl, examining her wound more closely. It had been slightly treated, but it was still a bad wound. Luis was becoming frantic. He had to get this girl help, but he also knew he had to get to Leon, and fast. Before giving it another thought, he lifted the girl up and started toward the door.

"Chris" the girl moaned so softly, that Luis didn't even hear it.

With Leon and the others:

"Hm, pretty smart of them putting wood into the gears to block our path," Chris explained, his arms folded behind his head. "but they're definitely no where near as smart as me!"

"Guess even the air heads need their moments." Travis whispered to Vee, who responded with a chuckle.

"What's so funny over there?" Chris questioned suspiciously.

"Oh nothing." Vee lied. "It's a math joke. Wanna hear it?"

"Um, no thanks."

"Math joke? That's the best you could come up with?"

"It worked, didn't it?"

The S.T.A.R.S. members crossed the bridge, followed by Leon, Travis, and Vee in a desperate attempt to find Ashley after being carried off by one of those giant bugs, all excluding Vee, who was walking as slowly as she possibly could.

"Hurry up, Vee!" Chris shouted.

"I rather take my time. I'm not in a rush to find her, really." She replied with a sneer.

"Go ahead and find Ashley. I'll make sure these two don't get into any trouble." Chris said, falling behind the group.

"Whatever. Just hurry up." Leon answered, irritated. It was quite obvious he was still angry with the two for everything they have done.

"These two?" Travis asked in a cautious tone. "Why am I always in these little 'chats?'"

"Be part of the solution, Travis, not the problem." Vee joked.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, I'm just bored, that and I don't want to have another "talk" with our brain surgeon Chris over here."

"Now look you two." Chris interrupted. "You're going to give Leon, and me, a heart attack at this rate. His job was to rescue Ashley. Vee, you're risking Leon's entire mission, as well as another person's life."

"It's not our fault that she always gets captured." Vee answered, the tone of her voice showing that she was apathetic toward Ashley's situation.

"Vee, please. Try to be nice to her." Travis added, taking Chris's side. "I know I've been mean to her as well, but she really is in danger."

"Alright, alright. Let's go save her. On the bright side, she'll owe me for saving her hide."

The three, now in agreement with each other, started across the suspended bridge, but something struck Chris from behind, rendering him unconscious. Vee and Travis swiftly turned around, as Chris's body made a thump sound as it hit the ground, to see a smiling Nicholai, a smile that wished both of them malevolence.

"Now, I finally have you two. I knew if I watched long enough, I would find an open opportunity to snatch you both. If I had more time, I'd kill this pathetic S.T.A.R.S. member, but we must make haste to Rockfort Island, where the two of you will receive judgement for your actions." Nicholai laughed.

"Sorry, but I'm not in a mood to go back their for quite some time." Vee replied, taking Travis by the arm and pulling him across the bridge, only to find Hunk blocking the doorway, a TMP pointed directly at them.

"Now children, don't make me do this the hard way." Nicholai said, walking up behind them.

"Let's go for a little walk, shall we?" Hunk spoke, punching his TMP into Travis's back.

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_Well, guess you have to wait until next time to find out what happens. See you then!_

_And while you wait for the next chapter, leave us a review and let us know what you think! _


	17. A Problem and a Solution

_Ah, I love cliff hangers – they really make you question what's going to happen. As well as piss people off, hehe..._

_This chapter is pretty good – in my opinion at least. Just be forewarned, there's a rather anticlimactic fight scene that I wrote and it's really just sad. I couldn't think of anything, so, don't kill me._

_And Travis wrote a bit of a joke about the Pope that some people might find offensive – hopefully not. Besides, the Pope might actually find it funny!_

_Okay, on to the story. I know the title is really dumb, but I was trying to come up with one while staring at the clock._

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Chapter Seventeen: A Problem and a Solution

"Please watch what you're doing with that," Travis said uneasily as they began to walk back they way they came.

Vee peered over her shoulder in the direction the others had gone. She could always try screaming, but odds were that they were already out of earshot. It was worth a try, though.

"HEL - !"

Nicholai quickly covered her mouth. "I'd advise against doing that again unless you'd like me to staple your mouth shut."

She simply shook her head, and he hesitantly let go. They were coming up on where the unconscious Chris was still laying, and as they passed, Vee paused to kick him in the ribs. "Wake up, would you?!"

"You are making this much more difficult than it needs to be," the Russian grumbled, pulling her away from him.

"Is this all that necessary?" Vee asked, trying to yank her arm from his grasp.

"I have no intention of allowing you to get away, like you did in Raccoon City."

"Err… _What_?"

"I didn't think I would have the displeasure of meeting either of you again after that."

"I'm still not following you."

"You can't possibly be serious – you don't remember?"

"No. Travis?"

He shook his head.

"Nope, probably repressed it," Vee said, deciding that was the best explanation.

"Well, you had better remember from now on, because you two almost cost me my job," he replied caustically. "After your parents went missing, I was ordered to escort you through the city to a safe point where you would be picked up, but you both decided to run off… And then you ended up in the custody of that second-rate excuse for a cop."

"So why didn't Umbrella try to find us?" Travis asked.

"They didn't have to. They already knew where you were, but it wasn't in their best interest to get involved at the time."

"One more question," Vee said, "Could you please let go of my arm? If you squeeze my wrist any tighter, my hand is going to turn black and fall off."

"You have a lot more to worry about than that."

She was quiet for a moment, before saying contemplatively, "Well, if it's any consolation, I'm sorry we almost made you lose your job."

"I'm sure."

"No, really. And I say that mostly because I think you're okay… In some manner of speaking… Like, 'tolerable for an appalling person'."

"Really, because I can just barely stand you. But that doesn't matter. Soon you'll be the Ashfords problem."

There was a long period of silence, until Vee began humming quietly.

"Woe to you, O earth and sea. For the devil sends the beast with wrath…"

A Little Later…

Ada was passing through the castle's gallery, when she heard voices from the far end of the long hall around the corner. She paused, hidden behind one of the painting-covered walls, listening.

"S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night!" she heard one familiar voice say.

"I told you already, be quiet," said another in a fairly aggravated tone.

"Okay, okay, just quit constricting my wrist, it's going numb now."

She glanced around the corner, spotting the two kids, accompanied by two military-looking men, one of which, wearing a gas mask, reminded her of something from a long time ago, but she couldn't put her finger on what.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out something about this scene wasn't right. But should she intervene, or not?

Ada thought it over very briefly. They weren't her concern, but she couldn't necessarily just ignore the situation either.

She sighed, readying her gun. "This is for Leon."

Vee was still trying to get her arm free from Nicholai's grip while the four of them rounded the corner, when Ada suddenly stepped in front of them, her gun raised.

"Let them go."

"Who are you?"

"That's none of your concern. Let them go, now."

"Why should we?"

Ada did a very graceful gymnastics move across the room, kicking Nicholai in the chest and knocking him to the floor. "Because I said so."

HUNK aimed his TMP for her, but she was one step ahead of him. She kicked him in the face hard, causing him to lose his balance and also end up on the floor.

Travis and Vee stood there, staring at her with rather impressed expressions.

"You two get out of here. I'll handle them."

"Thanks, Ada," Travis called to her as they started for the way they'd come.

"We owe you one!" Vee added.

They left the gallery as quickly as they could, but before they had barely made it halfway through the hall after that, the door opened. It was Luis, carrying an unconscious Claire. "Wait!"

"Luis?" Travis said, surprised to see him there. "And Claire?"

"What happened to her?" Vee asked as he approached them.

"I'm not sure, but she has a nasty wound that needs medical attention. Where is Leon?"

"We don't know off hand. We got separated a little while ago," he explained.

"I have this medicine to inhibit the growth of the plagas. Here, you'll need these." Luis handed him the container of pills, before laying Claire down on the floor to rest a moment.

"I can do some basic first aid, but I'm not guaranteeing it will help a lot," Vee said seriously, looking at Claire's wound. "She needs a tourniquet. Is there any fabric around?"

Travis looked around, spotting what appeared to be a tablecloth folded on top of a nearby table. He grabbed it and brought it over.

"Luis, can you tear a few long strips off of that?"

"Do you know what you're doing?"

"Yeah. I got certified in first aid and CPR the last three years of high school, for my one class."

Vee took the strips he tore off and began to wrap one slowly around Claire's shoulder.

"Do you realize that everyone you know, someday will die? But instead of saying all of your good-byes, let them know you realize - "

"Vee, that song doesn't exactly encourage confidence," Travis said after a moment, and she nodded.

"Yeah, you're right. How about… When you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear a flower in your hair. When you're going to San Francisco, I'm sure you'll meet a gentle person there… Can't remember the rest…"

She was folded one of the shreds of tablecloth into a square, placing it over the area where blood had already began to seep through the cloth, and continuing to wrap the first one around it.

"Nothing has the chance to be good, but nothing ever could. I'll keep holding on…"

"Could you sing something a little more uplifting?" Claire murmured softly.

"Hey, that's one of my favorite songs from my childhood," Vee replied, slightly indignant.

"Claire, you're awake!" Travis said, relieved to see she was okay.

"What happened?" she asked drowsily.

"That's what we were going to ask you," Luis responded.

"Um, guys… I just remembered that we left Chris out on the bridge…" Vee said in sudden realization.

"Vee, Luis. Take Claire and go on check on Chris. I'll catch up with you later."

"Where are you going? For all we know, Hunk and Nicholai are right behind us." Vee said, now taking the role as voice of reason.

"I'll be fine. Besides, I'm sure Ada worked them over. Just go ahead." Travis answered, rushing them out.

Vee reluctantly agreed after a moment, helping pick Claire up, and left the room with Luis. The three made their way back to where Chris remained unconscious. The air was chilly. Vee could feel Claire shiver, as she leaned against her shoulder. She had done a good job at cleaning and bandaging the wound, but it wouldn't last forever.

"Don't worry, Claire. We'll get Rebecca to look at that wound in a bit. First, we have to wake up your brother from his beauty sleep, though, we all know he needs it."

Vee was rewarded with a light chuckle from Claire. The young woman was doing her best to remain conscious. For a moment, Vee felt sorry for Claire. She'd been through so much, but now was not the time for pity. Vee gently removed Claire's arm from around herself. Luis had taken the extra weight and let Claire lean on his side. Vee walked over to Chris, her gesture turning into that of anger.

"Wake up already!" Vee yelled, leaning down to shake the unconscious S.T.A.R.S. member. "Quit being lazy and get up. If it comes to it, I'll hang you off this bridge by your toenails." Vee once again shook Chris, this time receiving slight movement and a murmur.

"Five more minutes, Mom." Chris said, groggily.

"Mom? MOM! I will hold that over your head until the day you die, Chris Redfield." Vee said in a jokingly manner.

"Vee? What happened?"

"Oh, you know. The two guys that were hunting us showed up and knocked you out." She shrugged, like it was an ordinary thing.

"That explains the ache in my neck, but what about the pain in my sides."

"I wouldn't have a clue." She said, whistling. "Oh, by the way, Claire is in pretty bad shape. She's right behind us."

Chris quickly jumped up, ignoring all aches and pains, and rushed to the injured .

"What happened? Who did this to you Claire?"

"Chris, I'm happy to see you're safe. It was Wesker, and someone that worked for him. I was jumped. Before I knew what happened, a grenade came out of no where." She explained, telling him the rest of the story.

"Wesker, that scum. Don't worry, Claire. I'll make sure he pays."

"I hate to interrupt, but we should catch up with Leon and the others." Travis appeared from behind them with a smirk on his face and a rocket launcher on his shoulder. "Chris, glad to see you're okay."

"So that's what you went to get. Nice." Vee nodded with a grin.

"Uh huh. I thought it might be good for Leon, you know, just in case." He hinted.

"Gotcha."

"We need to find Leon." Luis interrupted. "He needs to have this medicine, and soon. Let's go."

Travis and Vee walked behind Luis and Chris, both which were assisting the wounded Claire. The two remained silent, glancing at each other every so often. In the next room, two garradors lay dead on the floor, the parasites on their backs completely destroyed.

"Looks like the others have already been through here." Chris said to himself. "Hopefully, they're not too far ahead.."

Travis was expecting the worst when Chris opened the door to the room where Salazar and his two guards appear in the game, but to his, and Vee's, surprise, the room was eerily empty and dull, save for the giant hole in the floor with a ladder attached.

"A ladder? Another plot change?" Vee whispered to Travis, who responded with a shrug.

"Guess we're going down. Travis, you first."

"Like hell I'm going first. I know what's down there, and the fear of heights does not help in the least bit!" he yelled.

Chris cocked his head, wearing a confused look. "What's down there?"

"Um, oh, that. Right, it's nothing. I meant, I've seen plenty of horror movies. I know what kind of stuff awaits people at the bottom of giant holes." He covered for his previous statement, quietly grinding his teeth while Vee chuckled silently behind him, apparently amused by his story.

"Okay then. Claire, do you think you could climb down by yourself?"

"I think so."

"Okay, good. Luis help me get Claire onto the ladder."

Moments later, Chris, Claire, and Luis had all vanished into the darkness of the hole.

"Looks like we're up. Don't be a wimp. It's just a ladder."

"Easy for you to say. One slip and we could end up as a shish kabob."

"Hm, come on. Just get it over with." Vee sighed, giving him a small push.

"Don't do that!"

"Fine, fine." She replied, moving toward the ladder. "See you at the bottom."

After a several minutes, Travis was beginning to feel uneasy.

"Crap. I can't just stand up here forever. Hunk or Nicholai could come hunting for Vee and myself any minute. " He debated, pacing back and forth. "I'm really starting to hate this place." With a sigh, he slowly, and carefully, climbed onto the ladder and headed down.

At the bottom, Vee had just finished jumping off the ladder, slightly bracing herself from the small drop where the hole ended and the room started to form. "Hm. I have to ask Salazar for the number of his decorator. This spiky pit is simply to die for."

"Where have you been?" asked a voice from behind, irritation clearly in the person's throat.

"Oh, hey Leon. I'm glad your safe. We ran into a bit of 'unexpected' trouble."

"Heh, another lie I presume? What was it this time, stalking the Pope?"

"Hey! That's not fair, Leon. For all it's worth, the Pope is a pretty scary guy. For all I know, he has a small army following him around."

"Don't you ever get tired of making fun of everything?"

At that moment, Travis came falling down from the area. "Ouch" he mumbled, scanning the room quietly before realizing his head was a few inches from one of the spikes. "Those last few steps are slick."

"The other delinquent finally decided to show I see." Leon puffed, turning his back to the two and made his way to the door.

"Okay, Chris. Next time you think about suggesting that we try talking to him, you better hope that he's a 90 year old man on his death bed." Vee shouted angrily at Chris, who had been on the other side of the room, silently watching the small fight between Vee and Leon.

"I have a feeling this might last a while." Chris sighed. "I better go find Rebecca and see how bad Claire's wound is."

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_Well, that's it for this chapter. And I'll be starting my part of the next one this week, so another one should be up soon._

_Thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave us a review! _

_Go team Venture! Yeah... I had to quote the Venture Bros. again..._


	18. Attempted Murder

_New chapter, folks, new chapter. Okay I'm never saying that again – I sounded like one of those announcer/salesmen people..._

_Anyway, this story is getting close to the end now, which means some more action, more weird stuff in the plot, and probably more fighting, too. Trust me, it never ends, ha ha..._

_Now onto the chapter, before I make myself sound any more retarded! Oh, and the title is a sort of a metaphor for one part of this... I was uninspired._

_-------- _

Chapter Eighteen: Attempted Murder

"Do you think Leon hates us?" Vee asked Travis, looking around the room and then to him.

"I wouldn't call it that. But he does seem rather upset."

"Rather," she replied, with a barely discernible nod. "Travis, I'm sorry that my plans tend to get us in trouble."

"Don't worry about it. It could be a whole lot worse," he said, trying to cheer her up. "Come on, we'd better catch up with the others."

They exited the pit, Vee murmuring the words to a song, and stepped into the sewers right behind Leon and Chris.

"… Nobody knows you. Trust is a joke…"

"She's singing again, how unexpected," Leon said sarcastically, more to himself than anybody else, although loud enough that she heard him.

"Oh, you want me to do something else? How about quote Hamlet?" she retorted coolly. "Player King: 'But, orderly to end where I begun; our wills and fates do so contrary run that our devices still are overthrown; our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own'."

He crossed his arms, turning to face her. "Hamlet: 'O most pernicious woman! O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain! My tables – meet it is I set it down, that one can smile and smile and be a villain. At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark'."

"You're familiar with Hamlet? Never knew that."

"That isn't surprising," he muttered. "It doesn't seem that you would care, since you don't appear to care about much of anything else."

"Did you just imply that I'm insensitive to you?"

"I don't have to imply anything," he said in a subdued manner.

"You're starting to remind me more and more of the mother from _The Others_, except you haven't tried to smother us with a pillow yet," Vee said under her breath.

"What is that supposed to mean?" he snapped.

"We said we were sorry. What more do you want?!"

"How about a couple of good kids that actually do what they're told and don't go around doing things behind my back!"

"The only reason we did anything behind your back is because we were worried you would try to get rid of us!"

"Yeah, sure. And I suppose it's a coincidence that you got mixed up with Wesker?"

"That tears it!" Vee shouted, making a move to go after him, but Chris managed to restrain her before she could get far. "Let me go!"

"Not until you calm down."

Leon, not being concerned in the slightest by the scene, turned to walk away.

"Alright, alright, I'll meditate or something. Just let go of me," she said calmly.

As soon as Chris let her go, she grabbed a rock that was nearby and chucked it, managing to nail Leon in the back of the head.

He paused, slowly turning back to glare at her and then continued walking.

"And it really makes me wonder if I ever gave a fuck about you!" she half sang, half screamed at him.

"Vee!" Chris said, putting his hands on her shoulders and trying to get her to stand still. "What you just did was seriously uncalled for."

"I realize that, but I don't know what to do anymore! I just don't know what to do."

"Vee, Vee, listen. I need you to pull yourself together. Everything will be okay in time, I promise. But right now we have to pay special attention to Claire, and find Ashley."

"Right. Sorry," she replied composedly.

He smiled, ruffling her hair. "Okay, let's go."

"Don't ever do that again," she said with slight discontent, trying to fix her now disheveled hair.

They continued on along the path, eventually finding the others standing around, waiting for them. "Rebecca, did you get a chance to look at Claire's wound?" Chris asked, as they approached.

"Yes. I can treat it easily, but first I'm going to have to remove the shrapnel. After that, she'll be as good as new."

"We're going to go look around," Barry called back to them, as he, Luis and Jill started to follow Leon further down the path.

"Why don't you two go with them, just in case they need help?" Vee suggested, "It might be best if I keep away from Leon for a while, so I'll stay here and help Rebecca."

"Alright," Chris replied, "Take good care of Claire for me."

The two girls headed into the room where the elevator is, and the other two began to head down the corridor. Travis was a little nervous. He knew that the Verdugo would probably show up soon, unless the plot had changed again. And just as he was beginning to wonder whether or not that had happened…

"What is that?"

Travis looked ahead into the dim light. Something long and dark colored with a blade-like appendage was hanging from the ceiling, swinging back and forth. "We have to catch up with the others, fast," he whispered. "Walk as quietly as you can, and don't say anything." He wasn't sure exactly what Verdugo was doing, but he hoped it wouldn't notice them until they made it to the room at the end of the corridor.

They practically tiptoed through the hall, trying to keep the sound of water sloshing around to a minimum, while the only other sound was that of the Verdugo nearby, trilling gutturally.

They slipped carefully past the tail and were making their way towards the door, relieved that nothing had happened. When they opened the door, though, the trilling stopped and was replaced by a low growl.

"Quick, get inside!"

They got in the room as fast as they could, slamming the door behind them, just before Leon flipped the lever for the power. The four looked at them weird.

"What's wrong?" Jill asked.

"There's a monster out there," Chris explained, right before the Verdugo dropped down from the ceiling. "Oh, great."

Back in the elevator room…

Rebecca had finished the general preparations for the small surgery she was about to do. She had removed the tourniquet, and exposed the injured area of Claire's shoulder before having her lay down on the floor. "Now, Claire," she said to the lethargic woman, "I'm going to give you a mild anesthetic before I do this. You might feel some pressure during the procedure, but that's probably it."

"Don't be too nervous," Vee said, "I've had some stuff like this done before and there's nothing to be worried about. For that matter, I'll hold your hand – it'll make you feel a little better." Claire just nodded.

Rebecca pulled out a needle, seeing Vee shudder. "Are you okay?"

"I hate needles," she replied, looking off to the other side of the room while Rebecca gave Claire the shot. "At least I'm not in your position, Claire. I'd be freaking out if Rebecca came at me with a needle… Not because I don't trust her, just because of the needle," she added, noticing the look she got from the medic.

"I'm going to start now, okay? Try not to fall asleep."

Claire nodded slightly.

"Talk to her, keep her alert."

Vee gave her a thumbs up with her free hand. "Um, I know, I'll tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a… woodcutter. He was once a noble, but due to some extenuating circumstances, he became a woodcutter… God, this is a bad story…"

"What happened?" Claire whispered, and Vee continued the story awkwardly.

"Well, uh, one day when he was still a noble, he found these two kids. They were the children of three different people that worked together in the… fields… making, I mean, planting different things. The three people disappeared into the forest one day, though, and no one could find them. So this noble, being the kind of guy he was, decided to look after them. Still with me?"

Claire nodded.

"Okay. Err… Some time passed, and the noble became a woodcutter. One day he had to travel far away to do a job for the king – who was later beheaded," she included with a small laugh, "The two kids wanted to help the woodcutter, so they did some things they probably shouldn't have to get to the distant kingdom where he was. When they got there, a lot of things happened and the events left him distrustful of their intentions. They tried to set things right, but nothing they did worked – he just accused them of being liars. And then when this one guy, who went around slaying dragons or something, gave them advice, things got worse."

"All done," Rebecca said suddenly, "All I have to do now is bandage your shoulder."

"Man, even the brothers Grimm wouldn't touch this story…" Vee said to herself.

"Is there a happy ending?" Claire asked quietly.

Vee shook her head. "I don't know. I can't think of one."

"I think…" she started softly, "… That the two kids found a way to show him they meant well."

"How did they do that?" Vee asked, not thinking much of the statement.

"They thought about it, and found a way."

Back in the power room…

The group had been fighting with Verdugo for what felt like hours, but the monster was so heavily armored they were having a hard time doing any damage. Until Luis noticed the liquid nitrogen tank in the corner of the room. "Leon, the monster is vulnerable against low temperatures!" he pointed out the tank.

Leon didn't waste any time prying the tank from the wall and throwing it in the direction of Verdugo, who shrieked when it started to freeze, and struggled to move.

It only took a few more shots before the insect-like creature disintegrated into a fine dust on the floor. They unlocked the door, and headed back towards the elevator room.

Claire was sitting in the chair at the desk when they entered, while Rebecca and Vee checked her vital signs.

"I got a pulse of sixty-nine and twelve respirations per minute," Vee said to Rebecca who was checking blood pressure.

"Your pressure is a little low from the blood loss," she said to Claire, taking the blood pressure cuff off. "It should go back up to normal in a little while, but in the meantime, I'd suggest you take it easy."

"How do you feel?" Chris asked, coming to Claire's side.

"A lot better," she said a little sleepily.

"Are you okay to do some more walking?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Travis and I can keep an eye on her," Vee volunteered. She was perfectly aware that Travis wasn't crazy about the woman, but at least they wouldn't be in Leon's way.

"Sounds like a plan. Let's get going."

They took the elevator to the room where you normally find the merchant – unsurprisingly, he wasn't there for some reason – and continued into the first of the two mines. The others descended the ladder at the end of the track they had been following, while Travis and Vee stayed behind with Claire, standing just out of sight of the villagers working below. Claire seated herself on the ground a couple yards from where they stood, leaning against the wall and resting her eyes.

Vee heaved a sigh, peering around the wall to see how the fight with the miners was coming. "We'll be lucky if Leon doesn't just fork us over to Alfred pretty soon…"

"He wouldn't do that," Travis reassured, but she just shook her head.

"He is extremely ticked off. I don't think I've ever seen someone that bothered before. I really shouldn't have hit him with the rock, either," she added a little regretfully.

"Why did you throw a rock at him, anyway?"

"I really wasn't thinking at the time. In hindsight, that was better than what I would have done if Chris hadn't stopped me…"

"Should I even ask?"

"Eh… Let's just say that I probably would have gone to jail for a long time," she said, peering around the edge of the wall again when she heard a chainsaw start up. "What should we do about this mess?"

"I don't know. I don't think Leon's going to let this go anytime soon."

"Well…" she trailed off, looking back at Claire momentarily. "You know, while Rebecca was patching Claire up, I told her a fairy tale based on what's happened to us – I wasn't very inspired," she explicated, seeing the weird look he gave her, then going on to give him the gist of the story.

"Wait, if a noble is equivalent to a cop, why is a woodcutter equivalent to a government agent?"

"Like I said, I wasn't inspired. Anyway, at the end, she told me she thought that the two kids came up with a way to prove to the 'woodcutter' that they didn't mean to cause so much trouble. She didn't give me any ideas, though."

They both looked in her direction. "Do you think she knew exactly what the story was about?" Travis asked and Vee shrugged.

There was an explosion nearby, and Chris called up to them. "We cleared the path! Come on!"

They retrieved Claire and helped her down the ladder, following the others into the next area. The two took special care to find a spot near the door they had come in through where the Dos Gigantes might not notice them if they stood against the wall with Claire in between them. It wasn't long after that, the two monsters entered the room and the fight began. Travis watched with some concern as Jill almost got stomped on.

"Do you think they'll be alright?"

Vee looked at the scene before them. "Yeah. They can protect themselves. Right, Claire?"

Claire replied with a drowsy murmur.

"Uh-oh, here comes one right now. Stand still," Vee said, and they ceased moving as the one Gigante stopped, staring directly at them stupidly and then stomping off. She waited until it had made its way to the other side of the room and then took on a disturbed tone. "I'm still wondering who's idea it was to dress those two things like that."

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the castle…

"I hate my job," Nicholai grumbled to himself. "It shouldn't be this hard to detain a couple of kids."

HUNK didn't reply. He was staring off into space contemplatively.

Nicholai's communicator beeped. It was Alfred.

"What is taking so long?" he questioned authoritatively, and the Russian shifted nervously.

"We are having some trouble apprehending the vermin in question."

"You had better not fail this mission," Alfred said, taking on a surprisingly threatening tone. "Or else you can take their places!"

He tried not to be too concerned by that statement as he pocketed the communicator. "We're going to have to think of something drastic."

Back where we left off…

The group had managed to make their way through the Novistadors' cave and the castle ruins without much ado, and had just entered the second mine. Vee quickly got bored walking along the path into the mine, and had started singing again, quietly.

"Has our conscience shown? Has the sweet breeze blown?" she nudged Travis with her elbow and pointed to Leon. "Has all kindness gone? Hope still lingers on."

They came out into the mine, where there were a few villagers hanging around here and there, casually waiting for them to come closer.

"We're going to go first, and as we clear the area, you follow," Chris told the two, after thoroughly examining the site.

They nodded, watching them descend into the dirty, dusty hellhole and set off bear traps as they headed for the stone room where Dr. Salvador and his friend were waiting for them. Once they entered, and the skirmish began, Travis and Vee carefully led Claire down the stairs. She was beginning to wake up a little more, but she was still on the languid side.

Vee was now humming another tune, and apparently not paying much attention to where she was going. "The sand castle values are all swept away in the tidal destruction of moral melee – DAMN!"

Travis nearly fell down when all of Claire's weight suddenly shifted to his shoulder while Vee was speaking a mile a minute. He regained his balance, Claire groggily fidgeting a bit as she came further out of her injury-induced half-consciousness.

Vee had stepped into a trap that hadn't been triggered and was hiding under the cover of the sand.

"OhGodohGod!" she repeated, hopping around on one foot like a lame flamingo.

"Are you okay? Do you need some help?" Travis asked, watching the scene with concern.

Vee stopped acting like a psychotic idiot, and took a few deep breaths. "Okay. I'll just pry it off, and I'll see if there's any damage."

She interlaced her fingers with the teeth of the trap and pried it open, pulling her foot out before it snapped shut again.

"It looks alright," she said calmly, inspecting her ankle, "But it hurts like crazy!"

"Why don't you stay here with Claire and give your ankle a minute to rest, while I go into that little basement room over there and loot the scepter?" Travis asked.

"Gladly," Vee said, taking Claire.

Travis disappeared into the room below, and Vee stared at the ceiling for a moment. Until she heard a scary voice saying something in Spanish…

Looking up, she saw Dr. Salvador following the twisty path, coming right for them. He started up the chainsaw, and Vee quickly drug Claire back up the stairs, trying to get away from him. "Travis, we need some help!"

Dr. Salvador slowly made his way up the stairs, saying something indistinct.

"Go away! The guy you want is somewhere on the other side of the room!" she squeaked, trying to back further away and meeting the wall.

Just as Dr. Salvador raised the chainsaw, Travis came up behind him, forcing open the trap Vee had stepped in only moments before and allowing it to close on the freak's head. Dr. S screamed, running around like a headless chicken, until he ran into the wall, fell down… and his chainsaw accidentally disemboweled him.

"Thanks," Vee gasped, glancing at the body for a split second before looking away. "You've never had better timing."

"Happy to help," he replied, "Let's go. The others are probably about done."

"Is everything okay?" Rebecca called to them from one of the stone room's windows.

"Yeah," Travis shouted back, "Everything's fine."

Once the group had finished looking around, they continued on through the spike-ceiling room, and into the last half of the mine where the rail cars waited.

Travis and Vee both knew what lie ahead at the end of the track, and they weren't sure what was going to happen, but they didn't want to take any chances.

"What do we do? It's not safe to take the rail cars," Travis whispered to Vee, who thought for a moment.

"Wait until we get to the second boarding platform. Then tell them some story about why we should walk the rest of the way."

"Why me?"

"Hey, I'm the one who causes the most trouble. Do you think they'd listen to me more than you?"

"Okay, okay, but what do I say?"

"I dunno. Tell them that given all the traps in this place, it's probably not safe to rely on the tracks."

"All aboard!" Chris shouted, hopping into a rail car.

"I hope you're right," Travis said to Vee as they got into the back.

The ride to the second platform was bumpy and full of danger seeing as they kept picking up extra "passengers" along the way, some with chainsaws. When they had finally cleared out the area, Travis decided it was time to say something.

"We, uh, think we should walk the rest of the way. Since there are so many death traps in this place, someone most likely tampered with the tracks," he proclaimed, getting a lot of weird looks.

Chris, who seemed to be in charge being as Leon hadn't said a word in a long time, pondered over the proposal, and then looked to Leon who just stared at him with the same unpleasant expression he'd been wearing for a while.

"I concur," Claire uttered unfocusedly, and that seemed to make up Chris' mind.

"That is a good point. Well, we'd better get a move on then. We might be walking a while."

They continued along the tracks on foot, meeting a lot of resistance along the way until they finally reached the gap where the tracks ended. But this time, instead of the tracks falling short with no way across, there was a sort of steel plank about a foot wide, positioned from the end of the tracks to the ledge across the chasm.

Vee peered over the edge of the tracks and then looked to the plank. "There is no way in hell I am walking across that thing."

"Oh yes, you are! I climbed down a freaking hole with spikes at the bottom. I'll get Chris to carry you across if I have to."

"What?" Chris asked a little confused.

"Fine, but if I fall to my death, I'm coming back and haunting you." Vee sighed, looking at what had to be the most unsafe temporary bridge ever made.

"I'm willing to take that risk."

After several long minutes of slowly moving across the gap, and even more near fatal slips, the group had safely got across. Just in time, too, for one of the carts had crashed into the plank, causing both the cart and the steel plank to fall into a dark abyss below.

"I'm mentally killing you." Vee glared at Travis, who, in turn, started whistling.

Leon took the Stone of Sacrifice from the wall, and continued the revealed path, all the way back outside. There, he placed the stone into the door, revealing something yet again, only in this case, a lift. The group took it down, two at a time.

"Um, Vee. That giant statue is here. What are we going to do?" Travis asked, when the others had already gone.

"Not quite sure. Guess we'll just see what happens when we get down."

"Right. We can't do anything about it, huh." Travis sighed, shrugging his shoulders.

Once down, the group moved to the main area where the giant statue is, except, it wasn't there, and in it's place was—

"It looks like one of those monkeys with the symbols!" Vee burst out laughing. "It's the perfect thing for Salazar. It fits him well."

Travis walked over to the "statue" and picked it up, examining it carefully. "This thing...isn't even a foot tall. It serves no purpose. Here I thought I had low self-esteem. I feel bad for Salazar. At least in the game it was compensating for his shortness. This is just pathetic." He mumbled, shaking his head in a disapproving manner.

"Come on, let's go. There's no need for us to stand around gawking at a stupid figurine." Leon angrily said, beginning his walk down the long bridge, the S.T.A.R.S. following closely behind.

"I swear, if he doesn't lighten up soon, I'm going to shove this figurine where the sun doesn't shine. Let's go Travis." Vee said, pacing herself so she would be able to catch up with the group.

"Hm? A serial number? No...it's some kind of code." Travis said, still examining the figurine, mostly unaware that the others had left. He peeled off the code and saw that the others were already over half-way across. Panicking, he quickly started sprinting down the bridge.

They crossed yet another bridge leading to a new building. In the new building, Salazar and his "left hand" were waiting for them, Salazar slightly chuckling as well as clapping.

"Nice of you to join us, Mr. Kennedy. I see you've brought more bugs for me to squash. No matter."

"Heh, you again."

"The sacred rite is about to begin. I cannot let you interfere with the ritual."

"That's not a ritual. It's terrorism."

"Terrorism, my, what a popular word that is these days. But no matter, I have prepared a special ritual for you" Salazar began to say, lifting his hand up, but Leon saw an opening and threw his combat knife, pinning it to the wall behind him. Seeing his master's discomfort, the creature took hold of the knife and threw it back towards Leon, who swiftly dodged.

"Mendez, take care of these rats." Salazar squirmed, holding his hand close to his body, before disappearing into the elevator.

"Wait!" Leon yelled, but a large creature came hurdling down, blocking his way.

"What, you!" Chris said in shock. "But, we defeated you at that barn."

"Hmph" Mendez only said, glaring at the S.T.A.R.S.

"Leon, Luis, go rescue Ashley. I believe we're the ones who he's after. Payback is a bitch after all." Jill said, taking her beretta out of it's holster. "We've beat him once, we can do it again. So just go."

"Okay, be careful." Leon said, dashing for the stairs, Luis following.

"Vee" Travis whispered, pointing to his back. "Leon might need this. I'm going to try and help him. I have this rocket launcher and my handgun. Hopefully, I'll be of some help. Just, get to a safe area and protect Claire."

After finding an opening, Travis rushed pass Mendez, who was mostly concentrated on the S.T.A.R.S. members anyway.

"Travis!" Chris exclaimed, but had to shift all his focus onto Mendez, who rushed forward in an attempt to grab him, but Chris gracefully dodged.

"Err, you're becoming a pain in the ass." he said, shooting three shots into Mendez's body. Mendez shrugged this attack off.

Mendez chuckled, as he pulled off his large coat. His body began to morph and transform. After a few seconds, Mendez's torso looked like that of a giant centipede, having several small appendages coming out of his back.

"This might be difficult." Rebecca quietly said, moving further back out of the range of the monster.

Leon and Luis made there way to the top with little resistance. They were right at the area where the merchant usually was when Travis had caught up with the two.

"Leon, Luis, wait!"

"What are you doing here?" Leon questioned, his face showing a look of extreme anger and discomfort.

"I came to help, for crying out loud. Couldn't you be a little more considerate about it?"

"I might be, if I knew that you weren't just going to get in my way."

"Ugh, you're really starting to piss me off, and that's not easy to do."

Leon raised an eyebrow at what Travis had said.

"Look, I just want to help. Come on, I'll prove I can be useful Leon."

"Heh, fine, but it's your life. If you get yourself killed, it's not my fault. And remember, you'll be on your own in battle."

"Noted"

After an awkward silence, the three entered the area, only to see an empty altar and a grinning Salazar.

"you are too late, Mr. Kennedy. The ritual is complete. The girl is on her way to an island with my men, but I think it's time I pay due respect to your stubborn will. Mr. Kennedy, welcome!" Salazar said eerily, before being wrapped up and taken in by the giant plant, along with his other body guard. After a few seconds, the plant transforms into a hideous monster.

"Monsters. After this there will be one less to worry about."

"I love that line." Travis said, but got an evil look from Leon. "Okay then, geez."

Back with the S.T.A.R.S.:

The fight with Mendez was proving to be long, but not extremely difficult. The monster was tough, but he was definitely outnumbered. Between Barry's colt python, and the handguns the others had, Mendez looked to be on the failing side, that is, until his upper body split from his lower.

"That was too easy" Chris smirked, turning his back to the monster.

"Idiot! He's not dead yet!" Vee yelled, but it was too late. One of the monster's appendages had stabbed into Chris's back.

"Chris!" Jill yelled in concern, firing four rounds at Mendez, but he had jumped and moved to the higher levels where we could move more freely, using the lift bars to swing on.

"Looks like we're taking this fight to the higher levels of this place. Come on Jill."

"Right behind you Barry. Rebecca, stay with Chris."

"I can still fight" Chris said, squinting in pain. "It's just a flesh wound."

"Like hell it is. That wound is pretty deep. Just let me take care of it, okay?" Rebecca softly said, taking Chris by his right arm and slowly sitting him down, facing Claire, as she tended to the wound.

"What if they can't take him alone? He's faster now and he has cover as an advantage." Chris pondered aloud."

"Come now, Chris. It's Jill and Barry. They're both S.T.A.R.S. members as well. Have faith."

Meanwhile:

Jill and Barry were having trouble hitting the moving Mendez. It was dangerous to shoot with all the obstacles that were around. After minutes of shooting at Mendez, he finally came out for an attack, sending his giant appendage crashing in between Jill and Barry, utterly crushing the wall behind them.

"Barry, shoot the one that's holding him up!" Jill pointed out, firing three shots at the other arm. Barry joined in with his magnum. The monster finally fell to the ground, squirming like a fish out of water. Thinking fast, Jill jumped on the creature, making sure it wouldn't be jumping back up.

"It's like surfing" she joked for a moment. "Barry, kill it anytime now."

With that, Barry sent three magnum rounds into the thing's head, finally killing it.

"We have to go check on Chris, then get to Leon. He may need help."

"Right." Jill concurred, rushing back down the stairs to the others.

Back with Leon:

The battle was becoming hectic. Travis was using all his energy to just stay out of the creatures' tentacle like vines, while Leon and Luis concentrated on the giant head.

"Aim for the eye" Travis helpfully pointed out, as he narrowly dodged one of the vines. "Okay, note to self: Talking while fighting is a bad idea."

Reluctantly taking Travis's advice, the two aimed for the eye, hitting it several times. The giant head flopped back and revealed the heart of the monster, which was Salazar.

"My turn!" Travis happily spoke, taking the rocket launcher off his back. He carefully aimed and pulled the trigger...only nothing happened. "What the?" then the memory of falling off the ladder of the spike pit flooded his mind.

"What are you waiting for?! Shoot it." Leon angrily said, but the monster's head had already snapped back into place, protecting Salazar once again.

"Give me like, um, a few minutes. I'll fix it, I swear!" Travis said, panicking. "Looks like the trigger isn't connecting or something. God, why couldn't I have been interested in engineering? I'll just experiment. Hopefully I won't blow myself up."

"I'll distract the vines." Luis said, firing at them.

"Guess that leaves the head to me. I already told you you'd be on your own in a fight, guess I lied. We'll buy some time. Get that thing to working."

"Sir, yes sir!"

Minutes passed, and near death events occurred until finally Travis jumped up, rather happily."

"Got it! Let's try this again, Leon."

"Better work this time." He responded, shooting several more bullets into the eye. All the previous events reoccurring.

"Now, let's try this again. I'm sure you'll have a few friends where you're going. Heck, Mendez may already be waiting for you." Travis laughed, while aiming the rocket launcher. "It's now or nothing."

He pulled the trigger. The rocket went flying towards Salazar, but swerved upwards, hitting the ceiling.

"I'm going to kill you." Leon said, clenching his teeth. His eye was also twitching.

"It wasn't my fault! I aimed it correctly. It must have been because I was tampering with it."

The creature that was once Salazar began to make a weird sound, as if it was chuckling.

"Since when do monsters laugh?" Travis asked, a little freaked out.

Unexpectedly, most of the ceiling fell on top of the giant plant monster, crushing Salazar and the head. It slowly began to decay.

"Um...talk about anticlimactic. That has got to be the lamest way to die. At least with a rocket launcher, it makes a bang." Travis sighed, not very happy with the end result.

"What are you complaining about? It's dead. Better us than it." Leon answered.

From behind them, the door was forced open, revealing the rest of the small group.

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_Well, wasn't that bizarre and... bizarre? It's starting to get really weird with the plot twists now, actually. _

_Okay, got to be off – but do be kind enough to leave us a review and tell us what you thought!_


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